


Of Light and Lies

by brightwrites



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Girls in Love, Kidnapping, Love Confessions, Mentions of past abuse, POV Maria, Pining, Protectiveness, Secret Identity, Supervillains, Useless Lesbians, pre-written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-07-27 04:11:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16211138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightwrites/pseuds/brightwrites
Summary: “Maria?” she heard her best friend’s voice calling curiously from another room.Maria cursed her own clumsiness, having stumbled as she climbed through her apartment window and fallen into a heap on the ground. “I’m fine!” she shouted back....(It's hard being in love with both your best friend and your enemy at the same time. It's even harder when you find out that they're the same person.)





	1. Chapter 1

The sun was drifting towards the horizon. Well, as close to the horizon as you could get in New York City. It sank towards the dark silhouettes of skyscrapers, their windows glaring out a reflection of bright orange. The clouds were being painted in soft pinks and yellows, and even the part of the sky that was still blue was paling. The steady rumble of the city, cars roaring and blaring, people chattering, and the wind blowing through the packed streets, faded into the background. Through all the noise and stench of smog, a long-haired figure perched on the top of one of the lower skyscrapers.

Freya stared out at the sunset, running a hand through her tangled curls. Usually when she was out and about like this, it made her feel happy, comfortable. Normally, leaping from rooftop to rooftop was a welcome distraction from  _ him.  _ But today, it felt like he was right there with her, peering over her shoulder, watching her every move, snarling in her ear.

Freya’s phone rang, and she shuddered, already knowing who it was. With trembling fingers, she pulled out her phone. The contact name read  _ Boss.  _ It would be obvious, if anyone knew about her super identity. But in her civilian life, everyone just assumed that it was the manager of the book shop that she worked at.

She pressed  _ answer  _ the moment the phone was out of the little zip pocket in her suit. Delaying the inevitable would only make everything worse.

“H—” Freya didn’t even get the word out before a giant voice, a voice so loud that she felt like an ant, overpowered her soft speech.

“What the fuck are you doing?”  _ His _ voice crashed through the speakers of her phone, causing her to shrink in on herself. “You’re supposed to be doing your  _ job!” _ Freya didn’t even bother to wonder how he knew what she was doing. She had long ago guessed that he had put a GPS tracker or something on her phone.

“I know, I j-just—” How was she supposed to explain that watching the sun splash colours across the sky was one of the only things that he couldn’t threaten to take away from her anymore? How was she meant to tell him that the inexplicable peace of dusk was one of the only things that could even begin to loosen the knot of constant anxiety in her chest?

“Listen up, you useless bitch,” Freya closed her eyes and flinched a little, despite being completely alone on the skyscraper. “You even  _ think  _ about deserting me, betraying me, or abandoning your job, and you know what I’ll do.”

Freya took a long, deep breath. Then another. She clenched her jaw as tightly as she could, desperately fighting back the tears that threatened to spill past her lashes, and the sob that was trying to tear its way out of its chest.

_ Find out the girl’s identity. Figure out how we can use it against her. _

“Got it,” her voice was far too strained, even for her own ears.

“Good.” The curt voice cut off as he hung up.

Freya stared at the black screen of her phone for too long, resisting the strong urge to hurl it off the rooftop as she blinked back tears. After one, long, extended moment, she slipped the phone stiffly back into her pocket and took a running leap onto the rooftop next to her.

* * *

 

“Maria?” she heard her best friend’s voice calling curiously from another room.

Maria cursed her own clumsiness, having stumbled as she climbed through her apartment window and fallen into a heap on the ground. “I’m fine!” she shouted back.

Maria yanked off her mask and suit as quickly as humanly possible, pretty sure she heard something rip in her haste, and stuffed it into the miniscule gap under her bed. There was a knock at her door.

“Come in!” Maria said breathlessly, pulling on her soft, faded red dressing gown, kicking away a stray, crimson sleeve that had appeared from under her bed.

Maria’s bedroom door opened, and Eliza Schuyler poked her head through, slight concern glinting in her large brown eyes. “You okay? It sounded like you fell pretty hard there,”

Maria just shook her head, smiling slightly. “Nah, I’m fine. I just tripped over that ugly-ass skirt, you know the one?”

The concern faded from Eliza’s face as she smiled, and Maria almost had to look away due to how much she  _ glowed. _ “The one Alex got you?”

Maria felt the tension in her shoulders loosen, if just slightly, at the feeling of talking with her best friend. “Yeah. I mean, I know I complained a lot about how skimpy most of the outfits James bought for me were, but I don’t think that Alex had the right idea in buying me a fucking  _ granny  _ skirt.”

Eliza covered her mouth in an attempt to conceal the ringing giggles that seemed to fill the entire apartment with warmth. “Why—” she broke off for a moment, collecting herself. “Why do you even still  _ have  _ that skirt?”

Maria grinned properly this time, chest filling with her own laughter. “I’m waiting for the day that Alex has a daughter. Then, once he complains about whatever she’s wearing, I—” Maria picked up the almost-grey, floral monstrosity from her carpet— “am going to give him  _ this.” _

Now they were both cracking up, letting the simple joy seep into the walls and windows,  causing the entire room to shine a little brighter.

Their laughter died down to quiet huffs of air, and Eliza was the first person to break the comfortable, easy silence.

“I’m going to meet Pegs and John down at  _ Espresso Yourself.  _ Wanna come with?” It had been a while since Maria had learned of the name of the coffee shop down the block, but sometimes she still had to suppress a slight eye roll when she heard it. She smiled at the offer anyway.

“I’ll pass, thanks. It was a busy day at the shop, and I’m exhausted,” Maria yawned, partly for emphasis, partly because holding up a job, a social life, and a secret super identity on the side really does wear you out after a while. “Have a good time.”

Eliza beamed, causing Maria’s heart to grow about seventeen sizes, “Thanks, have fun sleeping!” before pivoting with a wave and walking out the front door of their shared apartment with a “Bye!” over her shoulder.

Maria sagged with relief, loosening the white-knuckled grip that was keeping the old dressing gown wrapped around her. She padded over to her bed, pulling out her suit and examining it.

Her supersuit and her pseudonym. Those were the only two things she liked about her alter ego. They were the only two things about her alter ego that she had  _ control  _ over.

Freya’s mask was a red and gold masquerade mask. Not always practical, but hell, if it didn’t look good. Her suit was her signature scarlet red, with gold sun designs on the back and chest, the belt around her waist and her gauntlets being gold as well. She had gloves and combat boots in the same red.

Maria folded up her suit and put it into the cheap, disguised compartment that she had bought for her drawers. It wasn’t the most top secret place to hide the suit, and if Maria had anyone else as a roommate, she’d be in a state of constant worry of it being found. But Maria and Eliza’s relationship was built on a lot of trust between the two. And Maria knew that Eliza respected her privacy too much to just root through her stuff like that.

Maria slipped out of her worn dressing gown and into her night clothes, before flopping into bed.

* * *

 

Maria knew that this situation had already escalated way,  _ way  _ too far. There had always been an unspoken agreement between Freya and Diana, to never endanger civilian lives or cause damages, unless absolutely necessary.

Neither had taken into account that Prometheus wouldn’t abide by this rule.

It was only only once in a blue moon that Prometheus actually joined the action himself. Usually, he just sent Maria out to do shit for him.

But apparently, this was a special occasion.

Maria felt like she couldn’t breathe. All that filled her lungs was smoke, fire, and the sound of  _ screaming screaming screaming. _

Prometheus sat neutrally on top of an overturned truck, on the edge of the madness, just in the shadow of one of the buildings. He watched the chaos build and crash and rebuild around him with milky eyes. Every once in a while, one of the not yet rescued civilians would suddenly break away from the group, to approach Prometheus with a horrified expression on their faces.

Then, Prometheus would say something, and their expressions would change from terrified to shocked. Without a second thought, they would turn and join the brainwashed mob overturning cars, setting them on fire, blocking Diana from attacking Prometheus.

Prometheus seemed to have carefully planned the mob to overturn certain cars, blocking off all roads at the intersection, so that the crowd was just trapped there, watching their cars burn and their friends and family do all the physical damage.

And Maria just stood on top of a building, watching it all happen.

She knew that she was no saint, and even the fact that Prometheus was threatening her to do his bidding didn’t excuse the things she’d done. She knew that karma was probably going to catch up to her at some point.

But even so, none of the damage that Freya had ever done could come close to what was happening now.

She just wanted to know why. There was no rhyme or rhythm to what Prometheus was doing. It didn’t help anyone, it didn’t seem to be contributing to whatever his master plan was. Maria knew he wasn’t one to create chaos just for chaos, so what was to point of him endangering himself like this? Why go out into the open, what he could do safely from base?

As Maria watched these civilians, some young enough to still be teenagers, call their loved ones in tears just in case they didn’t make it out, she knew, she  _ knew, _ that there was no way she could do this anymore.

Her friends… were strong. Not strong enough to protect themselves from a supervillian, but that was Maria’s job.

Maria breathed in the fire. She let the smoke and ash fill her lungs. She opened her eyes, which she hadn’t even noticed that she had screwed shut, and forced herself to take in the scene in front of her. The screams, the shouts, the sobs, they echoed and echoed in her ears, but she didn’t allow herself to shut them out.  _ You caused this. You caused this. You caused this. _

Maria’s heart stopped for a second, as the brainwashed husks all simultaneously fell to the ground unconsciously, like some sort of sick flash mob. But one by one, they began sitting up, looking around, obviously disoriented. A couple of them turned onto their stomach to throw up violently.

She realized that Prometheus was signalling her over with quick, sharp movements, and prayed to every god that had ever existed that he hadn’t read her mind.

Maria climbed down the side of the building, and onto the overturned truck beside Prometheus. She felt his eyes pierce into her, hated the way that it felt like he was stripping her down.

“Bring Diana over here, to me.” his orders left no room for objection, no room for questions. His stare was a white-hot burn, glaring daggers into her very mind as he peeled over her thoughts.

Maria bobbed her head in one short, stiff nod. “Yes, sir,”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to know what he was going to do to Diana. God, she shuddered at the very thought. Technically, Maria and Diana were enemies, and she knew that that’s what Diana considered them to be, but Maria couldn’t help but hold a healthy amount of respect for the superhero. Not least because Diana reminded her of a certain someone in her civilian life.

Now Diana had a huge crowd of people to rescue, half of which were still unconscious or vomiting.

Maria watched Diana pick people up with the long vines that she had shot out of cracks in the pavement, and deposit them out of the danger zone. She noted how Diana’s eyes were constantly flickering between the civilian being rescued and the crowd still in the hazard zone, to check for any imminent danger.

Diana was so completely engrossed in doing her job, it was going to be so easy to catch her off guard. Maria couldn’t help the guilt that welled up in her heart and lungs.

Maria closed her eyes, and clenched her fist. She took the constant, burning heat that lingered in her veins and scorched her insides, and gathered it all into one hand. She opened her fingers, and saw a little ball of light, almost like a tiny star, barely the size of an orange, floating about an inch off of her palm.

Maria glanced at Diana, and drew her arm back, before hurling the orb like it was some sort of alien tennis ball. It hit Diana right in the back of the head, where her dark hair was gathered into a bun.

Diana stumbled for a moment, looking bewildered, before turning to Maria with an expression of prickling irritation. “Could you please just let me finish this  _ one thing?” _

Maria bit her lip, but shrugged in with a faux, confident yet uncaring demeanour that was Freya’s signature move. “How about we just fight and get it over with?”

Diana sighed, but stretched out an arm, palm first. A thorny rose vine grew out of somewhere inside the truck, wrapping around Maria’s ankle.

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s an old move,”

Diana narrowed her eyes. “Well, in case you hadn’t  _ noticed,  _ I’m trying to save lives here,”

Diana was never really one for this sort of attitude unless she was in an unquestionably dire situation. Maria felt something in her soften as she realized that she was about to make Diana’s day about twice as hard as it was already.

Maria approached her from behind, but Diana flicked her wrist, causing an oak branch to shoot out of a nearby window and almost whack Maria upside the head. Maria threw another light orb, bouncing it off Diana’s shoulder, to make it seem like Maria was attacking Diana in her usual style.

Then, Maria did something that she had never done in her months of fighting Diana. She used her fists.

Maria tackled Diana, delivering a blow to her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She straddled Diana’s abdomen, staring into her wide, shocked eyes.

Maria and Diana had never been this close before. Diana’s doe-like eyes were an excruciatingly familiar shade of brown. The part of her nose that wasn’t covered by a leafy mask had scattered, extremely faint freckles dotting the pale skin. The wreath of vines that was usually nestled into Diana’s head was knocked askew.

Maria’s breath grew short and painful, something in her heart telling her that she  _ knew _ this girl, but she still reached up a trembling hand, and shone a brilliant beam of light straight into Diana’s eyes.

Diana cried out in pain, writhing underneath Maria. Maria’s voice cracked as she whispered a faint  _ I’m sorry,  _ her heart crumpling like a paper ball in her chest.

Maria wasn’t trained for hand-to-hand combat or picking up heavy objects. Prometheus had trained her to run, climb, jump, and roll, not tackle superheros and pick up their still-fighting bodies.

Nevertheless, Maria lifted Diana in a bridal carry with great difficulty. Diana, despite being temporarily blind, kicked and scratched and squirmed. She clenched her fist, and an apple flew out of nowhere, missing Maria by about a mile.

From this distance, or lack thereof, Maria could properly inspect Diana’s costume. It was extremely well designed and tailored, unlike Freya’s. A shimmering light blue for the fabric, but with designs of different varieties of vines wrapping up and down the body, images of flowers and fruit alike blooming along them.

Maria dropped Diana as gently as she could, which wasn’t very, at Prometheus’s boots. He grinned, and wrapped a long-fingered hand around Diana’s bicep.

Diana fought harder, growing a spiky hawthorn bush scarily accurately close to where they were, just barely an inch away from ripping Prometheus’s black and white suit.

Prometheus stared at Diana for a moment, before fixating on something just past her, eyes turning more and more milky white by the second.

Once his eyes started literally glowing white, Prometheus whispered something aloud and Diana went terrifyingly still, breathing hard. Maria stood to the side, watching the unsettling event happen with a dry throat and pounding heart.

Prometheus leaned forward and started mumbling into thin air, words unintelligible to Maria.

Maria brought up a shaking hand to brush some curls out of her eyes, before bringing that hand back down to lacing it with the other one in a death grip. If she is currently causing Diana’s death, she’ll never forgive herself.

But Diana twitched minutely, and Maria thanked whatever higher power was up there. At the time, she’d never admit it to a single living soul, but she had grown fond of the superhero that considered her an enemy.

Diana shot into a sitting position, clutching her head with both hands and gasping like she was running out of air, eyes screwed closed. Prometheus turned his back to Diana, uncharacteristic shock painting his expression.

After what felt like hours, but was probably only about a minute, Diana opened those dark eyes, and they were totally clear. It was obvious that she had gotten her sight back. She stood up properly,  _ almost _ managing to hide the way her legs were trembling like a newborn fawn’s.

“What was that?” Diana’s voice was surprisingly steady.

Prometheus seemed to have gotten over his shock, and smirked like it was an inside joke that only he understood. “Nothing you need to worry about, little miss,”

Diana took a deep breath, looking ready to argue. But she turned away, turned towards the civilians still in danger.

Without a second glance, she shot out a vine, and swung over to them, to assist the helicopters already there to rescue the victims.

Maria swallowed a scream. A scream of what emotion, she wasn’t sure. She turned to Prometheus. “Seriously, what was that?”

Prometheus’s knowing smirk stretched wider, lips paling. He reached towards the back of his head, and, thankfully out of the sight of anyone else, unclasped his white mask. He tilted his head up, showing off the silvery scar that stretched from the base of his throat up to his jawline.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” James Reynolds said.

* * *

 

Eliza was curled up on the squashy couch when Maria dragged herself through the apartment door.

“Hey,” Maria mumbled, ready to throw herself into bed. But then she noticed that there was something… off, about Eliza. Maria shuffled over and sat next to her. “Are you okay?”

Eliza was watching the news with blank eyes. The story that was playing quietly from the television was, Maria realized with horror, the intersection disaster that Maria had played a part in earlier.

Eliza turned to Maria, and gave her a tired smile. “Yeah, I’m alright. This sort of thing is just…” she picked at the multicoloured blanket that Peggy had gotten them as a housewarming present, “... shocking, you know?”

God, if Maria didn’t know. “I do, but you look…” a nauseous feeling suddenly flipped her stomach over violently. “Wait, were you  _ there?” _

Eliza didn’t meet Maria’s eyes. “Not really, I mean—” Eliza tugged agitatedly on the ends of her hair— “sort of?”

Panic wrapped its iron fingers around Maria’s ribcage, preventing her from breathing. She sucked in air desperately, trying to stay calm.  _ Don’t freak out. _ Eliza didn’t know that Maria had been partially responsible for the traumatic event. She wouldn’t understand why Maria was so upset. “Oh my God, are you okay? I mean, obviously not, but are you hurt, there was so much fire, do you need to go to the hospital?!” So much for staying calm.

Eliza shook her head, looking back up into Maria’s eyes. “No, no, I’m fine, I wasn’t really part of the action anyway. I was just outside the intersection, when people started overturning cars. I… watched it all happen.”

Maria clasped Eliza’s hands within her own. “I’m just saying, if you need to talk about that shit, you can. To me or your sisters or anyone else. That—” Maria gestured towards the footage on the television— “is really fucked up.”

Something like light shone in Eliza’s eyes, but she bit her lip and looked away, almost guiltily. “Yeah. Yeah, I can.”

There was silence between the two for a little bit, Eliza and Maria’s hands still wrapped up together, as they watched the horrific story quietly. It then cut to a shitty vertical mobile phone video, focusing in on three figures.

Maria shuddered lightly as she realized that it was footage of Prometheus doing that weird mind-power stuff to Diana. Eliza seemed focused on other things, however.

Eliza reached over, grabbed the remote, and paused the TV. Then she pointed at the screen. It was Diana lying still at Prometheus’s feet, while Freya stood off to the side. “She doesn’t seem to be enjoying this, does she?”

Maria frowned. “Diana? Of course not. I’m pretty sure she’s being possessed or something there,”

Eliza shook her head, cuddling closer to Maria. “No, I meant Freya. She doesn’t seem to actually  _ enjoy _ fighting,” Eliza pointed at the scene again. “Look at her face. She looks like she’s gonna be sick or something.”

Maria nodded. It did look like she was going to throw up as she watched James take control of Diana’s mind. Which was a pretty accurate description of what Maria remembered feeling at the time.

Eliza continued. “So why does she do it?”

Maria danced her fingers across Eliza’s knuckles. “Maybe Prometheus is threatening her. Maybe he’s threatening her loved ones,”  _ Shut up Maria, you’re going to give yourself away. _

Eliza looked troubled. “Can’t you go to the police for that?”

Maria shrugged. “The police in this city are shit. I mean, they can’t catch two criminals, with the help of a  _ superhero. _ If I were Freya,”  _ Which I am, _ “I wouldn’t trust them to take care of a pet rock, least of all my loved ones.”  _ I’m cutting it pretty fucking close here. _

Eliza tightened her grip on Maria’s fingers. “I don’t like this,” she muttered. “No one should be so stuck in that kind of situation.”

Maria shrugged. “I suppose she chose to put herself in there,”  _ Something I remind myself of all the time. _

A sigh. Eliza rested her head on Maria’s shoulder, looking like she had just watched a dog die. “This isn’t right,” Eliza buried her head in Maria’s jumper, and Maria tried to calm her thumping heart. “Nobody  _ chooses _ to put themselves in there.”

Maria ran her fingers through Eliza’s dark hair soothingly. “There’s nothing we can do about it,”

Eliza turned her head, to look up at Maria sadly. “I know.”

* * *

 

The sky was a murky sort of grey. The kind of grey that made the entire horizon feel smaller than it actually was. Clouds hung heavily from the sky, making the air feel thick. The dullness of the sky seemed to suck all the colour from the atmosphere, creating a pit in your stomach, where joy was meant to reside.

That’s how it felt, anyway.

Beneath it all, two figures were battling on top of a building. One clapped her hands, bringing shoots of ivy creeping up the sides of the walls and clinging onto the other’s ankles. The second figure sent a mini shockwave of light towards the first, who stumbled, but righted herself again quickly. Having lost her focus, she allowed the ivy to disintegrate.

It was a dance. One that they both were all too familiar with. It was a game of who would slip up first, who would be the one to admit defeat today.

Neither actually understood the reason that they were fighting. But they both knew of the one who was forcing them to fight, who was using the second figure like a puppet for whatever his sick, twisted master scheme was.

Maria kicked away the shrivelled stems of ivy plants, still wrapped loosely around her ankle. She shot a beam of light towards Diana’s chest, but it was dodged easily.

Maria then caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye, causing her to freeze. Diana took advantage of her distraction to send a spiky aloe vera plant straight into Maria’s abdomen.

Maria stumbled, clutching her stomach, but glanced back up towards Diana. “I’m calling a timeout,”

Diana frowned, confused. “You can’t just —”

“See you in a minute!”  Maria called over her shoulder, as she climbed agily down the building.

She landed neatly in a crouch onto the pavement, before straightening up. She turned towards the four people nearby.

Alex Hamilton, John Laurens, and Peggy Schuyler were the people that had distracted  Maria , and they seemed to have been filming the action with the camera that Maria had gotten Peggy for Christmas. This was  _ not _ the intended use of the camera.

Aaron Burr was behind the three, watching  Maria approach with an expression not unlike a child who had been caught burning flies with a magnifying glass.

John stood in front of the youngest Schuyler sister, and Alex stood in front of him, like this tiny man could somehow protect two people who could probably lift him with one arm.

Maria watched them for a moment, before taking a step back. To them, she was a dangerous villain, after all. No wonder that they were so cautious.

They had no idea that  Maria would literally rather saw off her own arms than hurt them.

“What are you doing here?”  Maria chose to ask. “This is a battle zone.”

Peggy rolled her eyes from behind John and Alex. She didn’t look too happy about that fact. “Okay first of all, no duh,” Peggy’s words were accented heavily with sarcasm. “And secondly, we were here  _ first," _

Alex crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s right,”

Maria pinched the bridge of her nose. She knew that she shouldn’t be surprised. She would’ve been worried if she had gotten any other sort of response from the three stubborn people in front of her.

“I have to go, just— ”  Maria turned back towards the building where she had been fighting Diana earlier— “get out of here, okay? It’s not safe.” She didn’t wait around to see the puzzled expressions on all four of the civilians.

Maria resumed the fight with the, also bemused, Diana, but her mind remained on the four, brave, but powerless, people below her.

* * *

 

The fight had come to a conclusion, a loss for Freya and Prometheus, due to Diana sneaking a vine around  Maria ’s waist and sending her sprawling onto her back. She quickly came to the conclusion that, if she was this distracted with worry and exhaustion, then it was probably time to retreat to lick her wounds.

Maria was hiding in a dark, dingy, back alley, about to change out of her suit, when she heard her phone calling. She answered it, shuddering at the contact name  _ Boss _ that leapt out at her from the screen. “Hello,”

“I know who Diana is,” was the immediate response she got.  Maria nearly dropped her phone.

_ “What?” _ she whispered, clenching the phone so tightly that she wouldn’t be surprised if she accidentally crushed it like an empty beer can.

“I’m not going to tell you,” God, she could literally  _ hear _ the smirk in his voice. “But I’ve got a plan. Meet me in our warehouse at six on Friday.”

“I—”  Maria felt ill, and not just because she was talking to her abusive, supposedly ex, boyfriend. “What are you going to…”

“None of your fucking business, bitch,” his voice snarled, far too close, into her ear. “Stay in your lane.”

Maria swallowed as hard as she could, and nodded, despite James not being able to see her. “Got it,”

* * *

 

Everyone in Maria’s civilian life thought that Maria had broken up with her shitty, abusive boyfriend ages ago. And it wasn’t a lie.

After Maria realized that she was gay, a lesbian, not attracted to men at all, it still took a while for her to muster up the courage to break things off with James.

All her friends, especially Eliza, were amazing emotional crutches to lean on during that period of her life. Eventually, she did manage to leave him, but only with a lot of screaming and violence, all on James’ part.

Months after their breakup, Eliza and Maria decided to move in together as best friends. (Though Maria had wondered back then, and still wondered now, if it was really the best idea to share an apartment with the woman that she was absolutely, completely, head-over-heels in love with.)

Just after the two moved in together, James tracked Maria down, and cornered her in an alley.

But instead of actually attacking her, he threatened her. He was the only living soul who knew about her powers, told in a moment of vulnerability. He threatened to kill her, hurt her friends, hurt  _ Eliza. _

Unless she worked under him, outside of the law. Unless she essentially became his henchwoman. Unless she went against every moral she’d ever had.

Maria agreed.

This definitely wasn’t the first time she was rethinking her decision, and she was sure that it wouldn’t be the last.

But this time it felt different. It was  _ serious _ this time. Diana, plus Diana’s loved ones, they were all in genuine danger, perhaps life-threatening.

Maria couldn’t go on like this much longer. She had to do something. She  _ had _ to do something.

* * *

 

Maria shuffled through the apartment door, feeling like someone had battered her with a hammer.

However, her mood instantly lifted, at least a little bit, at the sound of Eliza prancing through their apartment.

Eliza slid past her in fluffy socks, humming  _ What the Heck I Gotta Do, _ before grabbing Maria’s hand and pulling her into a twirl.

Maria laughed, allowing herself to be pulled into Eliza’s dance. “What’s got you in a good mood?”

Eliza shrugged, grinning that heart-destroying smile. “I just had a good day, that’s all,”

Maria hummed, narrowly avoiding stepping on Eliza’s toe. “And who’s the song for?”

Eliza bit her lip and hastily looked away, cheeks glowing in a faint blush. Maria tried to act like it wasn’t tearing up her insides. “No one.”

Maria prodded her gently in the side, and Eliza let out a tiny giggle. “Aw, c’mon, who is it?”  _ Please don’t answer that, I’m not sure if I’m able to hear it. _

Eliza shook her head. “Seriously, it’s unimportant,” Maria could tell by Eliza’s face that that was a lie, but she didn’t keep pushing. She was scared of what answer she was going to get. Thankfully, Eliza was quick to change the subject. “Anyway, did you know that Anthony Ramos sings that song?”

Maria snorted. “The guy that Alex totally doesn’t have a crush on because he totally doesn’t look like John?”

“That’s the one,” Eliza nodded. “You should listen to the soundtrack sometime.”

Maria shrugged. “Sure,” She glanced to the side, and her heart fell a little.

It must have shown on her face, because Eliza’s eyes softened and she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Maria shook her head, “It’s stupid, just forget—” at Eliza’s concerned frown, she relented. “It’s dumb, but, I’m just sad that my tulips might be dying.”

Eliza cocked her head to the side. “Why do you think that? They haven’t even bloomed yet,”

“That’s the thing. It’s been two weeks, I’m like ninety percent sure that it’s supposed to have bloomed by now, and I’m just worried that it’s because I haven’t been taking care of it properly.”

Eliza shook her head vehemently. “Wrong. You’ve been taking care of it perfectly well. Not all plants are the same, y’know. Didn’t  _ Mulan _ say that the last flower to bloom is the most beautiful of all, or some shit like that?”

Maria cracked a smile at that, and Eliza lit up. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it did.”

Later that night, after an hour or two of watching Netflix, snuggled up to Eliza, Maria decided to head off to bed.

“Night, ‘Liza. You staying up much longer or…?” Maria rubbed her eye.

Eliza, for some unknown reason, had her eyes fixated on Maria’s, still closed, tulip plant. “Nah, I’ll be going to bed soon, too. Just have something I want to do first,”

Maria, too tired to continue to ask questions, just sent her a half-smile before stumbling into her bedroom.

* * *

 

The next morning, Maria’s tulips had opened a crack. Not much, but just enough to see the pink petals inside, and enough to send Maria’s heart soaring through the clouds.

“Eliza! Oh my God!” Eliza came stumbling out of her bedroom, looking worried. But she stopped when she saw Maria, looking young and incredibly excited, next to the flower pot. Something warm and soft filled Eliza’s face.

“Congrats on your tulips blooming!” Maria didn’t hesitate in sweeping Eliza up into a hug.

What Maria didn’t see was Eliza flicking her wrist, causing the tulips to bloom a little bit more. Maybe just to see Maria smile like that again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW ahead for kidnapping and implied threats of torture.

Maria had a plan, and god-fucking-damn it, she was not letting herself back out of this one.

Diana, for all her smarts and constant vigilance, was far too caught up in the fight to realise that  Maria was purposefully forcing her back in one direction.

Maria threw a blazing orb of light at Diana’s feet, but missed and sent curls of smoke up from the cracked pavement. It had the desired effect, however, as Diana took several steps back into the alley that  Maria was driving her into.

Diana retaliated by sending several bamboo shoots lashing up from cracks in the pavement, almost impaling  Maria , had she not jumped backwards.

Diana may have been hyper-focused on the battle, but even she would notice if she backed herself into a corner.  Maria had to be quick.

Maria made it seem like she was about to summon another light orb, then, quick as a flash, she sent a shockwave of light, pushing Diana fully into the shadowy alley.

Not missing a beat,  Maria darted into the alley after her, before slamming into Diana full force and pinning her against the wall.

Diana fought back immediately; it’s not like  Maria had expected anything less of her. A sharp shove to  Maria ’s abdomen, knocking some of the breath out of her. Diana delivered another blow; a swift kick to  Maria ’s ankles,  _ almost _ making her let go. But she had a  _ plan. _

“Let go of me!” Diana exclaimed, trying to writhe out of  Maria ’s grasp. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Keeping her grip on Diana as firm as possible with her dominant arm,  Maria used her other hand to reach down into her zip pocket, pull out her phone, and toss it as far away as possible. Frankly, at this point, she didn’t really care if it broke. And she was absolutely not risking the chance that James had her phone bugged.

“Look, I didn’t want to do it this way, but—”  Maria coughed as Diana sent a sudden fist straight into  Maria ’s diaphragm— “Listen to me for one fucking second, this is important.”

“I’m so sorry for not trusting the person who _led me into an alley_ and _shoved me up against a wall.”_ Maria winced. It did sound pretty bad when you put it that way.

“This isn’t about me, okay?”  Maria snapped. “Prometheus knows who you are.”

Diana stilled for a second, face going sickly pale. “What?” she whispered.

“I _said,”_ Maria glanced back into the shadows, where her phone was lying quietly in the dark. “My boss knows who you are in your civilian life. And he’s going to come for your loved ones.”

Diana’s face hardened. “You’re just trying to throw me off,” she gritted. “You want to make me paranoid.”

Maria ’s grip on Diana tightened. “Do I  _ look _ like I’m fucking  _ lying?” _ she asked, voice scorching. The burning fury in her stomach must have shown on her face, because Diana slumped, glanced back up at her.

“God, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m trusting that you aren’t riling me up here,” Diana sighed, looking almost vulnerable for the first time since  Maria had first begun fighting her. “Is… is it from when he read my mind at the intersection?”

Maria shrugged. “Shit, I don’t know, probably. He doesn’t exactly tell me anything,”

Something in Diana’s eyes changed. “Why do you even work for him?” she barely waited for an answer, ploughing on ahead. “He’s threatening you.” It wasn’t a question.

Maria stilled, a whisper of a past conversation with her best friend creeping into her mind. “None of your fucking business,” she snarled. It didn’t have the fire behind it that she wanted it to. “Some things you don’t tell your enemies.”  Maria didn’t let herself wonder why Diana’s frown deepened at the word ‘enemies’.

“I suppose,” Diana hummed vaguely. “Back to the topic at hand: people close to me are in danger?”

Maria loosened her grasp on Diana. “I’d recommend keeping your friends and family close for a little while,” she said, getting ready to make a quick exit. “Prometheus won’t stop at anything.”

Maria didn’t even give time to let that sentence register before she yanked herself off Diana, flitted over to her phone, and dashed out of the alley, leaving a disconcerted Diana behind.

Maria had a lunch date with Alex and Theodosia, and she was not keen on making up yet another excuse as to why she was late.

* * *

 

“Eliza! Did you know that Alex is planning on asking John o—” Maria quickly lowered her voice once she realised that Eliza was talking on the phone to someone.

“Yeah— yes, of course I’ve been checking in on Peggy. I go out for breakfast with her every other day. I literally just talked to her on the phone. Maria? Oh, yeah, she’s been—  _ Ange!” _ Eliza’s cheeks went a little pink.

Eliza glanced up and saw Maria, before giving her a greeting wave and a little smile. Maria grinned back, mouthing  _ Say hi to Angelica for me. _

“Maria just came in, she says hi, yeah,” Eliza pulled the phone away from her ear slightly. “Angelica says hi back.”

Maria beamed at that. It had been kind of hard to gain Angelica’s approval as her little sister’s best friend and roommate at first, but with a lot of trust and time spent with all three Schuyler sisters, Angelica treated Maria as one of her friends, too. Maria really did miss Angelica’s sharp, clever jokes and wit once she went on the two-semester long trip to London.

Maria just hovered around the kitchen, near Eliza, who was sitting at the kitchen table, for a while. Grabbed a glass of water, scrolled through Twitter. Not too many world-changing events happening over there, just Alex getting into more petty debates with Jefferson, Peggy tweeting puns about ducks for some godforsaken reason, and Hercules showing off the designs of his latest project.

Eliza finished up her phone call with Angelica, confirming that  _ yes _ she and Peggy were taking care of themselves, and  _ yes _ she was aware that Angelica was one hundred percent willing to book a flight to New York and kick the ass of anyone messing with the Schuylers.

The call ended, and Eliza slumped forward, looking exhausted and inexplicably agitated. Usually Eliza ended her calls with her friends and family relaxed and happy. But now, she looked worn out and worried.

Maria quietly hopped off the counter where she had been perched, and bustled around the kitchen, turning on the kettle and retrieving two mugs from their cupboard. She made tea for the both of them, two sugars with just a touch of milk for Eliza, and no sugar but lots of milk and cinnamon for Maria.

Maria set the mugs on the kitchen table, before sitting in the chair next to Eliza. “What’s up?”

Eliza took a sip of her tea, and gave Maria a slightly-frazzled, but grateful smile. “Nothing, it’s just,” Eliza swallowed hard. “There’s a lot on my mind right now.”

Maria nodded. “Okay,” she said easily. “Just remember, the offer of being able to talk about anything still stands.” Eliza wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Maria felt a little queasy at her own words, too. She was such a hypocrite, telling Eliza that she can ‘talk about anything’ when she wouldn’t even tell her best friend that she was a henchwoman to a supervillain on the side. Or that she was in love with her.

The two young women sat in comfortable silence for a while, Eliza sipping her tea and fiddling with the ends of her hair, and Maria staring out the window, watching the setting sun paint peaceful colours across the clouds.

Until Maria glanced at the ticking clock on the wall. “Shit!” Maria shot to her feet.

It was just past twenty to six. And it was Friday, meaning that Maria had to be in the warehouse in less than twenty minutes. She didn’t want to think about how James would react if she was late.

“Sorry, Liz, gotta go!” Maria grabbed her phone, and slipped it into her pocket.

Maria was about to race out the door when she heard Eliza calling from behind her. “Wait!”

Maria turned around, confused, Eliza didn’t seem to understand her own demand either. She fidgeted with the fraying sleeves of her hoodie, eyes flickering anxiously from Maria to different places around their apartment.

“Just—” Eliza bit her lip, pulling her sleeves over her hands and twisting them around— “Stay safe. Please?”

Maria definitely didn’t understand Eliza’s sudden concern, but God knows that she was going to follow her request. Maria guessed that it was probably Eliza’s experience of witnessing Prometheus’s work first hand that had worried her. So Maria smiled softly at her best friend. “Of course,”

Then she hurried out the door.

* * *

 

Maria pushed open the rusty doors of the old warehouse  _ just _ in time. James was waiting, sitting on one of the abandoned, filthy palettes when she arrived.

“You’re late,” was all he said. Maria didn’t even try to argue with him.

Maria slipped further into the warehouse, bowing her head a little. James stood, stalking over to her. She flinched, expecting punishment for something she didn’t even actually do.

“I need you to do something for me,” James said, grabbing her arm a little too forcefully and pulled her into the heart of the warehouse.

Maria nodded, letting herself be led, dragged along like some sort of lifeless ragdoll.

“Stay still,” James ordered sharply, yanking his hand off her bicep. He went behind her back, and Maria was too frozen, and yet also trembling violently, to turn her head to watch him.

The warehouse was quiet. It wasn’t a peaceful sort of stillness, where you could clearly hear every footstep and every page turn, but a muffled sort. Like there was supposed to be noise, but someone had forcefulled muted it into unnatural silence.

The only warning was his breath on the back of her neck, before Maria was struck over the back of the head with some sort of blunt object, and blacked out.

* * *

 

Maria slowly faded into consciousness, only vaguely aware of two familiar voices speaking around her. One, the cold, emotionless voice of her ex-boyfriend. The other, however, could be one of two people. The woman she fought on a bi-weekly basis, or the woman she was in love with.

The second thing that Maria noticed was the splitting pain in the back of her head. It thudded insistently, causing her to bite back a moan of pain.

The clear voice of either Diana or Eliza said something sharply and loudly, causing Maria’s head to fill with a banging pain.

Maria cracked one eye open, but the world was too blurry to see anything, so she closed it again. “Liza?” she mumbled.

Both the voices ceased instantly. There was a shaky inhale from somewhere near Maria, and a trembling voice answered. “Maria?”

Maria forced her eyes open, and surveyed her surroundings. She was still in the warehouse that she’s been knocked unconscious in, but she was sitting on a chair. Well,  _ bound _ to a chair. Her hands were tied together with what felt like rope, behind the chair. Her legs, underneath the chair, were in the same situation.

James, in costume, stood beside Maria’s chair, keeping his gaze fixed on the woman that Maria thought was Eliza. But it wasn’t Eliza.

Diana was in front of Maria, staring at her like she’d just seen a ghost, her hands curled into trembling fists. Her big, dark eyes were a little wet.

The entire situation wasn’t adding up. Diana didn’t know who Maria was. Even if Eliza had told her, for some inexplicable reason, that she was Freya, why would Diana come to save her enemy from her enemy’s own boss? Maria’s head spun as she stared at Diana blankly from her chair.

“It seems that you’ve woken up,” James said, smooth and unfeeling as always.

“I’m— where— what?” Maria asked unintelligibly. She tugged lightly at the rope digging into her wrists, wiggling a little in her seat. “What’s going on?”

“Maria,” Diana said again, sucking in a deep breath and forcing it out again like it was painful. “Maria.”

Maria swallowed. Something was tugging at her mind, like a maths sum that she knew she could find the answer to, but just never thought to. “How do you know my name?” The numbers were adding up, and Maria wasn’t sure if she was going to like the answer.

Diana just gazed at her helplessly.

The chair that Maria was trapped on jostled slightly, and she glanced over to see that James had placed his hand on the back, barely millimeters away from Maria’s shoulder.

“So,” he said casually, like they were discussing a business deal in an ordinary office. “Now that she’s awake, I might as well tell you why you’re both here.”

Diana clasped her hands together, twisting her fingers around. “Get on with it,”

James rolled his eyes, tightening his grip on the chair. “Okay, fine. I have two requests. One,” he held up one finger, “You take off the mask.”

Diana went pale. She unclasped her hands, instead balling them back into fists. “You already know who I am,” she hissed. “Why?”

James smirked, like he knew exactly why Diana was so upset. He probably did. “Just do it. Or…” he moved his hand so that it was now touching Maria’s shoulder. Maria cringed, doing her best to pull away from him.

“Fine! Fine, I’ll…” Diana reached toward the back of her head, eyes anywhere but Maria. She began to unclasp her mask.

The sum in Maria’s head added up perfectly just a moment before the leafy mask slipped off of Diana’s face. “No,” Maria said, almost inaudibly.

The mask hit the dusty warehouse floor with a muted  _ thump. _ Maria fixed her eyes on it, fearing the answer she’ll get if she looked any higher.

James shoved two sharp fingers against Maria’s chin, and forced her to look upwards.

It was like an optical illusion. Your best friend and your worst enemy, photoshopped together to look like one person. But you couldn’t tell which part of the body belonged to who.

Maria inhaled deeply, feeling violently nauseous. Optical illusions had always made her feel sick.

Maria knew that she should have figured it out sooner. Eliza and Diana, were one person. Eliza was Diana. Diana was Eliza. Maria had cuddled up to Diana while they watched a movie.  Maria had violently fought Eliza.

Maria felt herself throw up a little in her mouth.

But she knew that this wasn’t just some elaborate prank, as much as she wished it was. Those eyes, they were Eliza’s, but they were also Diana’s. The way she held herself, the colour of her hair, the tiny freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose, they were all details that only Eliza and Diana shared.

Eliza— Diana—  _ She _ stared at Maria, terrified of her reaction. But Maria couldn’t even fathom what she was supposed to say in this situation.

James straightened up, though Maria barely registered it, as she kept her eyes fixed on the person in front of her.

“Right!” James said, dancing his fingers along the back of Maria’s chair. “Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s discuss the second request.”

Eliza slowly moved her eyes, from where they were watching Maria apprehensively. “What is it?” she asked breathlessly, fixing a blazing glare onto James.

“You step down from being a hero for one month,”

Maria shook her head violently, before stilling with a slap from James. Eliza jolted. “No,” was her immediate answer. Maria breathed a sigh of relief.

James hummed, like he was contemplating something. “You realize that I’m not limited to just capturing one of your friends?” He landed his hand forcefully onto Maria’s shoulder, and squeezed it. Maria winced. “This one was hilariously easy to catch.” Like Maria was a fucking fish, or insect, or something.

Eliza went about twenty shades paler, but still shook her head resolutely.

“And I don’t plan on just having a bunch of people tied up uselessly, either,” James continued. “I have my own ways of bringing suffering.” His hand crept around Maria’s throat, and she shuddered. “I would how long it will take this bitch to crack.”

Pure, undiluted fury filled Eliza’s usually calm eyes, and she looked ready to lunge over and rip James’ oesophagus out. For a moment, Maria thought she was going to. But instead, she took a step back.

“Two weeks,” Eliza said, and Maria felt her heart shatter in her chest. Internally, she begged Eliza to not do this. To not give in to him. “I’ll stay out of action for two weeks.”

James tightened his fingers on Maria’s throat for a moment, before releasing it completely. “Fine,” he said coldly. “Two weeks.”

He yanked a pocket knife out of his pocket, before swiftly turning around and sawing through the ropes around Maria’s wrists. He did the same to the ones around her ankles.

Maria gingerly rubbed the skin of her wrists, bleeding from where they were rubbed raw from the ropes, and from where James had uncaringly scraped them with his knife. Eliza grabbed her mask off the ground.

Maria stood up shakily, and her legs almost gave out, before Eliza rushed over hastily and caught her. Maria wondered how long she had been passed out in that chair for.

“You can leave,” James said, turning away. “But don’t forget our deal.”

Eliza didn’t waste another second in hurrying them both out the door.

* * *

 

Finally, they were outside. Maria took in deep breaths of relatively clean air, coughing out the dust that had settled in her nose and mouth from her time in the warehouse. She leaned against Eliza, burying her face in her shoulder. Eliza clutched Maria in an iron grip.

“Maria,” Eliza said shakily, after maybe two minutes of just hovering outside the warehouse, “We should go to the hospital. God knows what he did to you.”

Maria pulled back, balling her fists in the fabric on Eliza’s shoulders. “Eliza,” she whispers, staring into her best friend’s beautiful eyes. “Eliza, tell me you didn’t just agree to that deal.”

Eliza cupped Maria’s face with trembling hands. Her dark eyes were filling with tears. “I,” she choked out, stroking a thumb across Maria’s cheekbone. “I’m so sorry, I just, you were there, and he was talking about—” Eliza broke off with a sob, and the shattered pieces of Maria’s heart broke even further.

Maria wrapped her arms around Eliza’s waist, pulling her as close as physically possible. She stroked her fingers through Eliza’s hair, shushing her gently. She did her best to ignore the dread filling her stomach.

Eventually, Eliza’s sobs died down, and Maria drew away slowly and reluctantly. Eliza held Maria’s hands tightly.

Maria squeezed Eliza’s hands. “Can we please just go home?” she asked quietly, knowing that her exhaustion was showing itself clearly on her face. It must be some time in the middle of the night, judging by the darkness.

Eliza’s face was so soft that it was almost unbearable. “I think we should,”

The Eliza-is-Diana conversation could wait for a better time.

* * *

 

New York City was quiet. Not literally, cars still beeped and civilians still yelled, but it all felt muted, distant. Clouds, high in the sky, out of reach, swirled around, creating paintings worthy of Van Gogh. The air felt cold, invasive, the wind pushing and pulling insistently.  Maria stood, still as a statue, on top of a skyscraper, watching the horizon blankly.

It was the third day of Eliza being forced off duty. James hadn’t executed any plans yet.  Maria was just out on watch, making sure that Eliza wasn’t breaking her end of the deal.

Maria wondered what Eliza was doing right now. Sleeping, most likely.

Maria began moving without really thinking about it. She slipped down the side of the skyscraper, and onto another, moving towards her own apartment building.

She stood on top of the apartment block, knowing exactly which windows were her and Eliza’s. She had learned her lesson after miscounting the windows and stumbling into her neighbours apartment, only barely making it out before her neighbour came home from work.

Their apartment had three windows; one in Maria’s bedroom, one in Eliza’s bedroom, and the last one was in the kitchen. It was a lovely apartment, courtesy of Eliza’s family being wealthy.

Maria sat on the cold concrete, and considered. She could just turn around. Let Eliza keep believing that Freya and Maria were two different people. Let Eliza keep believing that her best friend didn’t serve a supervillain on the side.

Maria and Eliza had spent two days quietly dancing around the fact that Eliza was a superhero. They both knew that sometime soon, they’d have to talk about it. And Maria hadn’t told Eliza that she was Freya.

Every moment that  Maria spent knowing that she knew who Diana was, but Eliza didn’t know who she was, she felt more scummy and dishonest.

Maria  wrung her gloved hands, staring at the ground, many stories down. She’d gotten over the dizziness that had once overtook her whenever she was too high up. But right now, her head spun and her stomach was doing backflips.

Maria blamed it on her altitude, and not on fact that she was about to alienate herself from her best friend.

Maria skated down the building’s walls, moving to her own window out of habit. She took a moment to gather her courage, before climbing towards the window next to hers.

She perched on the concrete window sill, then, with shaking hands, she rapped thrice, sharply and swiftly.

Eliza’s bed was out of the window’s view, but  Maria saw her soon enough, shuffling towards the window with a puzzled expression.

Eliza’s semiconscious eyes widened at the sight of Freya looking back at her.

Maria half-expected Eliza to just turn around and refuse to even give her the time of day, but she was wrong. Of course, Eliza was too compassionate to leave anyone outside in the cold. Even her enemy.

If  Maria were an optimistic person, she would be hoping to update that title to ‘ex-enemy’ by the end of this confrontation.

Eliza moved forward, deftly undoing her window lock and sliding it open, allowing  Maria to slip into Eliza’s bedroom.

She’d been in here often, of course, with all her cute little trinkets scattered on every surface, and touching photographs of all kinds of memories plastered all over the walls.

Even so, in costume,  Maria felt like an intruder.

She cleared her throat, fiddling with one of the curls that were spilling over her shoulders.  Maria opened her mouth, wanting to break the cold, thick silence that had settled like ash between the two.

The ash settled in her throat and mouth, blocking any sound from escaping.

Eliza sighed, crossing her arms. She was wearing an old t-shirt with a little cartoon sheep on it, as a pajama top.  Maria felt pathetic at the way that her heart flipped at how adorable it was. Eliza broke the silence. “Why are you here?”

Eliza didn't sound angry, or even annoyed. Just absolutely exhausted.  Maria twisted her fingers together nervously, still unable to force any words out.

Eliza continued. “If you're here to make sure that I'm  _ not _ doing my job, congratulations. I'm not taking that chance,” Eliza met  Maria ’s gaze with now fiery eyes. “Must be pretty nice to have me just stuck here.”

Maria closed her eyes. “That's—” her voice cracked embarrassingly, so she coughed and tried again. “That’s not why I'm here.”

Eliza tilted her chin up. It was startling to see such flames blazing in her usually soft, gentle eyes. The warmth that had usually resided there had hardened into a  _ fire. _ “Oh? So you just came to visit then?” Eliza clenched her jaw in frustration. “Just to see your enemy helpless?”

Okay. Eliza referring to  Maria as her ‘enemy’ did not help with her nerves.  Maria ’s anxious tugging on her curls grew into agitated yanking. “I’m,”  Maria felt her breath quicken, the urge to back out growing stronger with each painful inhale. “I don't…”

Cool, gentle hands grabbed  Maria ’s own, effectively stopping the abuse on her hair.  Maria met Eliza’s eyes, which were still fierce, but with a flicker of concern. “Freya,” she began, quieter this time. “Why are you here?”

Maria knew that if she thought about it any longer, she wouldn't be able to go through with it. Instead, she pulled her hands numbly out of Eliza’s, and reached towards the back of her head.

Eliza’s surprised voice didn't reach her in time. “Wait—”

Maria tugged on the ribbon that was holding her masquerade mask to her face. She shakily yet deftly undid the ribbon, and listened to the mask clatter to the ground.

The city outside was quiet. Eliza was completely silent.

Maria angled her head, so that the warm amber light spilling in from the open bedroom door hit her face. Just in case Eliza didn't recognize her right away.

Maria smiled. It wasn't a joyful smile, but not bitter either. It was a numb curve of her lips.

She forced herself to look at Eliza, who was still. Not a twitch of her fingers. Her dark hair didn't even seem to be moving in the breeze.

The light from the hallway didn’t touch Eliza, so she was only lit by the cool night sky. Eliza looked like she was made of marble. She looked like one of those ancient, worshipped statues, in all their untouchable beauty. Most of all, the similarity in those eerily expressionless eyes fixed silently on her.

Eliza finally moved, barely. Her eyes flickered down to the mask on the ground, then they glanced back up to meet Maria’s. Eliza swallowed.

Eliza closed her eyes, before reaching out suddenly and grabbing Maria’s hand. Maria almost jumped a foot in the air. This definitely wasn’t the reaction she was expecting. Then again, the first thing that Maria would expect from anyone else was a punch to the face. But Eliza wasn’t the sort for violence. At least, out of costume she wasn’t.

Eliza began pulling Maria, gently but firmly, out the bedroom door and into their sitting room. She perched on the couch, and tugged Maria down next to her.

“Okay,” Eliza said, surprisingly calm. “Okay, so you're… Freya.”

Maria knotted her fingers together anxiously. “Yes. I'm Freya,”

Eliza nodded, her eyes constantly moving from Maria's face to her suit, as if trying to connect the two. “And you've always been Freya,”

“Freya has always been me.” Maria untangled her fingers, scratching the skin of one arm nervously. Eliza closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

“I think we both have a  _ lot _ of explaining to do,” Eliza paused, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around herself. “So, let’s talk.”

Maria nodded, curling a little into herself. “Okay.”

And so, they talked.

Maria told Eliza almost everything about doing dirty work for Prometheus. She admitted to always suspecting, at least subconsciously, that Eliza was Diana.

Eliza talked about the struggles of being just one, lone superhero, trying to protect an entire city. She talked about the guilt of hiding her secret from her friends and family. She talked about always wondering who Freya was under the mask, what kind of life she led.

Eliza trailed off. Maria could see out the kitchen window from here, and the sun must have been beginning to rise behind the buildings, as the sky was beginning to fade from soft black and navy and into pinks and purples. But the stars were still out, sprinkled across the sky as hopeful little dots of light.

“Why do you do it?” Eliza spoke up suddenly.

Maria felt something like cold, liquid metal slink into the pit of her stomach. It filled her throat and lungs, so all she could do was choke out a quiet “What?”  _ You know what she’s talking about. _

“I know you, Maria, and you wouldn’t just work for someone like Prometheus because you’re a fan of what he’s planning,” Eliza sounded so sure, so absolutely  _ certain  _ that Maria wouldn’t work for Prometheus of her own free will, that Maria fought back tears.

Maria swallowed. “You remember my ex-boyfriend, James?”

Eliza’s face paled and her eyes widened, but she nodded.

Maria sighed, and closed her eyes. “A few months ago—” her voice caught, so she cleared her throat. “A few months ago, he cornered me in an alley. He…” she clenched her fists. “He threatened me. But not just me, all our other friends as well. Especially you.”

A hand grasped Maria’s knee, squeezing it comfortingly. Eliza scooted a little closer to Maria on the couch.

“James was the only one who knew about my p-powers. He knew how to take advantage of them, too,” Maria leaned just a little closer to Eliza, and her heart loosened in relief when Eliza didn’t pull away. “So I worked for him.”

Eliza blinked, eyes lost in her own thoughts. “So… James Reynolds is Prometheus?”

Maria nodded. “Eliza… I'm sorry,” she made herself face Eliza. “I’m so, so sorry for all the things I did to you while we were in costume. Shit, I'm sorry for what I did to the whole  _ city  _ while I was in costume.”

Eliza bit her lip. “Are you going to keep working for him?” she asked Maria seriously.

Something seemed to stiffen the muscles in Maria’s throat, but she forced herself to swallow. “Even before I knew who you were, I'd been thinking about deserting for a while,” she admitted. “But now that I know you're you… I think that I subconsciously made up my mind, the moment you took your mask off. I can't fight you. I just… couldn't.”

Eliza inhaled quietly, and her eyes went unbearably soft. Maria had to look away, because if Eliza kept staring at her like that, Maria didn't know what she'd do about the warm, all-consuming love that was filling her chest. She'd probably do something stupid, like kiss Eliza.

“I'm going to stop working for him,” Maria said, and the moment the words left her mouth, it was final. There was no going back now.

“Then you still have a chance to redeem yourself,” Eliza said, quietly but confidently. “We can work together to take Prometheus down.”

Maria's breath hitched, and her eyes got a little wet.  _ You still have a chance to redeem yourself. _ “I…” she cleared her throat, willing the tears down. “Yeah, we should work together.”

There was silence for a few moments, before Eliza jerked suddenly, a horrified expression on her face. “That night in the warehouse,” she said, “Was that a trap? Did you know that he was luring me in?”

Maria blinked. “God, no. Of course not. I wasn't sure, really, that you were you. Plus,” Maria shuddered a little at the memory. “He just told me to meet him at the warehouse. I didn't know that  _ I _ was supposed to be the bait.”

Eliza relaxed a little. “That's not your fault, I guess. Freya did—” Eliza froze. “Oh my God.”

“What is it? Are you okay?”

“Nothing, it's just,” Eliza curled her fingers into loose fists. “You literally  _ told me. _ You told me that my loved ones were in danger. And I still didn't manage to save you from your own damn boss.”

“Eliza, you couldn't have known,” Maria took Eliza's hands. “Honestly, I would have been more worried for you if you tried to warn me about something like that. James would have gotten me eventually, anyway.”

Eliza sighed, pressing herself closer against Maria, laying her head on Maria’s shoulder. Maria tried to calm the heat flushing through her veins and the violent flipping of her stomach.

Maria wrapped her arms around Eliza. “What are we going to do about James-slash-Prometheus going for our other friends?” the question that had been burning at the back of her mind since she'd first made up her mind about leaving.

“We'll protect them. It's two of us against one of him, after all.” Eliza smiled into Maria's shoulder. “You're not alone in this anymore, Maria.”

And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Maria felt tears rush to her eyes faster than she could blink them back, and quiet, trembling sobs were building up at the back of her throat.

Maria was gasping in a futile effort to keep the tears back, and she turned away from Eliza, covering her face. Her shoulders shook.

“Oh,” Eliza said softly, and soft hands were suddenly touching Maria’s face, gently turning her head to look at Eliza. “Oh, Maria.”

“No, it's nothing, just—” Maria bit back a hearty sob.

“If you say ‘just forget about it’ I'm actually going to lose my mind,” Eliza's voice was stern, but her eyes were still looking at Maria like she was the only thing that mattered in the world. Maria almost started crying harder.

She didn't  _ deserve _ that look. Maria had come close to actually killing people. Fuck, maybe she  _ had _ killed people, and the news had just never reported it. Maria had done terrible, terrible things, and yet Eliza still gave her that soft gaze.

Eliza's arms were around her now, pulling her as close as possible, and Maria curled into Eliza gratefully. She hid her face in Eliza's shoulder, feeling pathetic.

“I'm sorry,” Maria hiccoughed. “I'm sorry, it's just, I'm not alone anymore—”

“You aren't,” Eliza confirmed, rubbing circles into Maria's back. “We're in this together from now on. If James tries to say otherwise, he can catch these hands.”

Maria let out a weak, watery laugh, as her cries began to die down. She lifted her head from Eliza's shoulder, wiping away the traitorous few tears that were still slipping out of her eyes. “Thank you,”

“I haven't done anything yet,” Eliza reminded her. Maria leaned against her, shrugging.

“You're still forgiving me, or at least still tolerating me, for all the awful things I've done. You're still offering an alliance with your former enemy. You've still given me a literal shoulder to cry on,”

Eliza frowned at little. “First of all, yes, I do forgive you. If you're willing to make the choice to actively do good for the city and make up for all the bad shit you've done, then of course I forgive you,” Eliza stared directly into Maria's eyes, as if to telepathically get the point across harder. “Secondly, don't call us enemies, please. I didn't really like the word before, and now I feel kinda sick if I think of you as my enemy. Lastly, what else are best friends for?”

That nearly drove Maria to tears again. But she held herself together, and instead practically threw herself into a hug with Eliza.

They were going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, as i said before, this is possibly my favorite thing i've ever written. seriously, i don't even know why.
> 
> the next chapter is definitely not gonna be as action-packed. it's more plot-based, i guess, and our girls are gonna be uncovering a lot of dirt on james.
> 
> btw, i'm updating on sundays!
> 
> my tumblr is @brightwritesstuff, pls send me any questions u have about this fic i am so ready to ramble about The Writing Process
> 
> [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sIMd8eoouyWry6WGQMpe0)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two new faces.

Libraries are a peaceful place. The nostalgic scent of old books, the soft, plushy chairs, the faint background noise of people whispering amongst themselves. Books of all sorts, from old, blocky, hardback encyclopedias, to new, sleek, flexible magazines, were stuffed into the shelves. Bars of pale light shone from the windows, illuminating the dusty air and worn out book covers. Two young women sat near the back of the library, pouring intently over their respective books.

“Nothing,” Eliza sighed, snapping her book on witchcraft shut. She impatiently pushed away the few dark strands of hair that had escaped from her bun.

“Same here,” Maria said quietly, not taking her eyes off the tiny print of the book about the supernatural in front of her. “It's all bullshit.”

Eliza glanced around the room at the other people, but no one seemed interested in their conversation. “So we have no information as to how James’ powers work,” she laced her fingers together. “Which equals no information as to how to take him down.”

Maria nodded with a defeated expression. “The best we have is whatever I have on him,” she flipped the page pointlessly. “Which is exactly, nothing.”

Eliza sighed again, leaning back in her seat and covering her face with her hands. “This would be so much easier if we were in some crappy superhero movie,”

Maria snorted. “This would be the part where a mysterious stranger walks up to us and reveals themselves as the one who ‘created’ James,” she flicked another couple of pages, still nothing relevant. “maybe he's a failed experiment, an escaped lab rat.”

Eliza suddenly sat up to look at Maria. “Wait,” there was quiet for a second. “I might have an idea.”

“You're not actually considering that idea, are you?” Maria asked, frowning. “Because I'm like ninety-nine percent sure that it's not true.”

“No, no, but,” Eliza climbed to her feet. “We're not gonna find anything here, let's go.” She pulled Maria up next to her.

Maria barely had time to grab her bag before Eliza was off, the assured skip back in her step. Maria smiled a little at that.

Eliza led Maria out of the library and all the way back to their shared apartment. The moment that the door shut behind the two, Eliza hurried into her bedroom, yelling for Maria to “Stay right there!”

Eliza burst back out of her bedroom clutching her laptop, chest heaving with excitement and hope shining like a beacon in her eyes. Maria was pretty sure that this sight was one of the most gorgeous things she'd seen in a while.

“Okay, so,” Eliza began, hurrying towards their couch, Maria following curiously. “This may be nothing, it might not lead us to anything.”

“But?” Maria asked, sitting next to Eliza on the couch and blinking at the booting up screen of her laptop.

“There have been other superheroes in the past, right?”

Maria nodded. “Not many. People like us have become far more public in recent years, probably ‘cause before, you'd just be branded a devil’s child or something like that.” Maria narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

“It's dumb, but, you know how in a lot of movies, the villain is actually a good guy gone bad?” Maria nodded, the realization dawning on her. “Well, it's a small chance, but the first lead we might have. What if Prometheus is just a superhero who stopped being good for some reason?”

Maria bit her lip. It was improbable, but… they were desperate for _something._ For even the tiniest hint of a clue as to what James’ weakness might be. “Might as well start somewhere,”

Eliza nodded. “Do you know where James was from, before he came to New York?”

“He didn't really like talking about his past much, made him angry,” Maria shuddered a little. Eliza's eyes narrowed, and her fists clenched into tight balls. “But I'm pretty sure he was from Detroit.”

Eliza hastily typed a few keywords into Google, then clicked _News._

There were a couple of articles unrelated to superheroes, but a lot of them talking about a superhero Maria had never heard of before. _Thoth._

“Male,” Maria said quietly, pointing at the screen. “Named after an ancient deity of wisdom. Pretentious-ass suit.” Eliza smiled a little at that, and made a noise of affirmation.

Eliza opened a new tab, and searched about the superhero Thoth. From Detroit, and was a superhero there for about two years. He used mind-controlling powers to take down petty criminals and bank robbers. It was hard to know much about him, because he could disappear quickly.

Thoth was a lone wolf of sorts. At first, he stuck to talking the criminals into turning themselves in. Then, he seemed to start getting less patient with the criminals. Convincing them to hurt themselves or just hurting them himself. Even driving some to suicide.

The criminals who lived always refused to speak so much as a word of their encounters with him.

Thoth was quite the anti-hero for a couple months, then he just. Disappeared off the face of the Earth. The last sighting of him was walking into an empty building. Apparently, the windows of the building all burst with light for a moment, then it was dark, and Thoth was never seen again.

Maria sat there, silent, even after she and Eliza had finished reading the articles on Thoth.

“Look at the date he was last seen,” Maria pushed a hand through her hair. “It was only, what? Three or four weeks before I met James?”

Eliza stared at the screen. “So James-slash-Prometheus is Thoth?”

“There’s nothing to say that Thoth _isn’t_ James.” Something occurred to her. “Wait,” she grabbed Eliza’s arm. “Go into images of Thoth.”

Eliza obeyed, and Maria squinted at the pictures. “Look,” She pointed at the clearest image of Thoth, which wasn’t saying much, as most images made him look like some sort of blurry cryptid. “You know how James has that scar on his neck? From here to here,” Maria traced her fingernail from her collarbone up to her jaw.

Eliza looked disheartened. “Thoth doesn’t have it,”

Maria tilted her head. “This doesn’t necessarily disprove our theory.” She reassured Eliza. “If we went full on superhero movie with this, maybe he got the scar from whatever happened in that building, the night he disappeared.”

“His supervillain origin story.” Eliza zoomed in on the picture of Thoth. “It’s a bit of a stretch.”

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Maria reminded her. “You’re the one who originally said to go all cliche-movie-trope on this.”

Eliza’s lips slowly curved up into a small smile. “Touché,”

“Where do you think we should start?” Maria asked. “If this theory is true, we have a lot to work with.”

“Well,” Eliza clicked on an article. “I say we start with exactly _what_ went down, the night Thoth disappeared.”

* * *

 

Maria had gotten a new phone, shortly after she stopped working for James. She still had her old one, in all its cracked, outdated, barely working glory.

She knew she’d have to get rid of it. There was no point in having a phone that she couldn’t use in case her new enemy used it to track her.

A part of Maria wanted to do something dramatic and symbolic, like throw it off a bridge or burn it or something.

But Maria’s life was already full of drama, and littering was a crime, anyway. So she ended up just tossing it out like an out of date piece of fruit.

However anticlimactic, it still felt good to not feel like she was being watched at all times.

* * *

 

The café was noisy, and a little too crowded for comfort. People bustled around, holding hot drinks and warm foods. Some were peppy and ready to face the morning, others were downing their fifth coffee and looking ready to throw hands with God Himself.Two young woman slipped in the doors nervously, spotting a lone man, sitting quietly in the corner.

Maria and Eliza made their way over to the man, presumably Lafayette. He was wearing a white scarf and a blue jacket, as he said he would over the Facebook messages that they had originally communicated with him with.

“Hello,” Eliza said, pulling out a chair and sitting in front of Lafayette. “Are you Lafayette?”

Maria did the same as Eliza, smiling politely. Lafayette startled for a moment, looking up from his drink, before flashing the two women a large smile. “Indeed it is.” He had a thick French accent. “You are Maria and Eliza, yes?”

Maria nodded. “I’m Maria,” she offered.

“And that makes me Eliza, obviously.” Eliza fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket.

“So, you’re here to investigate the disappearance of Thoth?” Lafayette asked, taking a sip of his drink.

Eliza nodded. “You were the only one there, so we thought that you’d be the best start,”

Maria laced her fingers together. “We don’t want to pressure you, but every single tiny detail counts,”

Lafayette nodded. “Okay, but, I would like to say that my perspective may not be the most detailed. I was only outside the building when it happened.”

“Every. Detail. Matters.” Maria repeated.

Lafayette took a deep breath. “I do not remember why I was outside the building. I was probably just walking home. It was dark out, but I see this, this figure. And he breaks through the window of this old, run-down building. No one had used this building for years,”

“And you’re sure that this figure was Thoth?” Eliza questioned quietly.

“I am almost certain. I saw his suit,”

Eliza nodded, satisfied. “Thanks. Please, continue.”

“I hear Thoth pacing around, crunching on broken glass. He sounds like, how you say, _an animal in a cage._ There is nothing but that for a few minutes, and then, another crash. It sounded like a window breaking. Then, speaking. But it is quiet talking, I couldn’t make out the words. There is more pacing, and a few loud _bangs,_ like someone is throwing things around. I’m sure you’ve heard of the next part,” Lafayette stared into his lukewarm drink.

Eliza was leaning forward in rapt attention, while Maria was fidgeting with a napkin.

“There is this bright flash of light. _Very_ bright. It is like the sun itself had entered the building. But the light isn’t yellow, or warm. It is a bright white, like the reflection of snow. Then the flash fades, as quickly as it had come, and everything is dark and quiet. _So quiet._ But,” Lafayette swallowed. “Then a scream. It does not sound… human, that scream. It is loud, and so painful for the ears. And then, silence again.” Lafayette looked unsettled. “That’s as much as I told the reporters.”

Eliza nodded, but Maria frowned. “It doesn’t sound like you’re finished.” She said.

“Perceptive.” Lafayette finished his drink. “You see, ever since that night, I’ve been having these… dreams. I would not call them nightmares.

“At first, it was just the same thing as I told you, and I thought that it was because it was such a memorable experience. But I started seeing things that I don’t remember noticing the night of the disappearance. I would see another person, through that window. He was quite strange looking. He wore old fashioned clothes, and a curly, white wig. What do you call them in English?"

“A powdered wig?” Eliza raised her eyebrows.

“Yes! Maybe that was nothing but a fever dream, but the next part was just horrifying.”

Maria leaned forward, clenching the abused napkin in an iron grip.

“I would see Thoth, leaving the building. But he looked just… terrified. He almost looked like he was trying to _escape_ from something. Worst of all, he had a cut, that was absolutely _gushing_ blood. It was on his neck, from here to here.” Lafayette drew a line with his finger, from his jawline, down to the base of his neck.

The exact line that Maria had drawn earlier.

Eliza inhaled sharply from the side, but Maria barely heard her. She ripped the napkin in half.

“Thoth then disappears into the night, and my dream is over.” Lafayette shrugged. “This probably didn’t help much more than what you read online, but I did my best.”

“Actually, that cleared up a lot for us,” Eliza smiled at him, properly. “Thank you so much.”

Lafayette smiled back. “You’re welcome, mon amie,”

“Do you live around here?” Maria asked, finally releasing the poor napkin into a crumpled mess on the table.

Lafayette nodded. “Yes, I moved to New York City shortly after the reporters stopped questioning me. Bad memories, no ties.” He smiled, a little sadly. “Not many ties here, either."

Something clicked inside Maria. Something about the man in front of her reminded her of herself, a while ago. “Here, take my number. In case you ever want to just, talk about shit,”

Loneliness. Lafayette looked lonely.

Soon after, Maria and Eliza were hurrying out of the café, whispering furiously together.

“That’s basically a confirmation! Thoth is James!” Eliza’s eyes sparkled.

“This still brings up a lot of questions,” Maria worried at her lip. “I mean, what the fuck happened in that warehouse?”

“We both know that James would never let us get close enough to hurt him,” Eliza tilted her head to the side. “So whatever the fuck happened in that warehouse is our ticket to beating him.”

“You think his weakness is powdered wigs?”

They laughed together on their way home.

* * *

 

Maria came home from her night shift at work to see Eliza sitting on the kitchen windowsill, hair in a messy bun.

“Hey,” Eliza greeted quietly, looking at Maria with tired eyes. Maria was struck with how much she looked like Diana. And with the fact that Diana always used to look exhausted near Freya.

“Hi,” Maria said, dropping her bag to the ground. “Whatcha doing?”

“I was researching old superheros,” Eliza replied, gesturing to her laptop, open at the kitchen table. “Trying to find weaknesses. Nothing much relevant for our case.”

“I honestly wasn't expecting there to be,” Maria settled to perch on the kitchen table.

“Me neither,” Eliza glanced out the window. “We finally have information on him, but we don't know what to do with it.”

Maria nodded, as her phone chirped in her pocket. She pulled it out to check who was texting her at this hour, then promptly dropped it on her lap.

**Unknown Number:** Gone rogue, have you?

With shaking fingers, Maria typed out a response.

**Maria:** Who is this?

**Unknown Number:** You know who I am, bitch.

Maria shut off her phone hastily, then curled her hands into fists.

“You okay?” Eliza seemed to have noticed how pale Maria had gone.

Maria was tempted to lie. To just tell her that it was her boss, or a friend, or Lafayette. Eliza had so much to deal with already, she didn't need a probably harmless interaction with their enemy on top of all that.

But, an interaction with the enemy is important no matter the subject matter, especially when they have so fucking little information to use against him at the moment.

But, if it had been Eliza that James was texting, Maria knew that she would want Eliza to tell her straight away. It just wasn't fair to keep Eliza in the dark.

But, the most prevalent point of all, was the fact that Maria was absolutely, 200% done with lies.

“It's James.” she said flatly. “He’s found my new number.”

* * *

 

The next few weeks passed in what seemed like little snatches of time. Eliza and Maria argued on whether to text back or just block James’ number. They ended up just leaving it.

Time moved on, a blur of work and research and circular debates. James’ texts became persistent, and so Maria blocked the number.

Research, work, debate. Lafayette’s texts were a far more pleasant constant.

Thoth, bookshop, circles. Maria and Eliza’s friends were beginning to worry about them. Shutting themselves in, whispered conversations, always zoning off. If only their friends knew.

James, powdered wigs, Eliza. Maria kept dreaming about these things.

Superheros, journalists, arguments. The people of New York City were definitely noticing and talking about the absence of their beloved superhero and infamous villains.

In what simultaneously felt like a single day and twelve years, Maria realized that two months had passed, and they were still going nowhere. No other leads had popped up, leaving the two women with a complete dead end.

Maria wanted to tear her hair out.

Prometheus hadn’t attacked in quite a while, which meant that he was planning something. Something _huge._

And Diana and Freya were going to have to beat him to it.

Then Maria had a dream.

It started out like every other dream she’d been having for the last two months. She was back in that fucking warehouse, alone in a small pool of dusty light. She couldn’t make out anything outside the light.

She waited. Maria knew that someone was going to come. Usually it was James or Eliza, and the dream would take a nonsensical turn from there, as dreams often do. Occasionally, it was someone she knew in a powdered wig. Sometimes it was someone famous, like Jonathan Groff or Brian d’Arcy. Sometimes it was just someone she saw on the street. But they were always wearing some dumb powdered wig.

A pair of buckled heels stepped into the spotlight. The person wearing them revealed himself, and Maria, from where she was kneeling on the ground, felt the odd urge to burst out laughing.

It was a man, she was pretty sure. He wore white stockings up to his knees, an expensive looking red suit, embellished with an outrageous amount of gold, and a powdered wig. But by far, the strangest things about his outfit, were the unnecessarily thick ermine fur cloak draped around his shoulders, and the absolutely _enormous_ crown that was stuck on top of his white curls.

The man’s wide, pale blue eyes fixate on her. “My, oh my. It’s you!”

Maria didn’t respond. She waited for the dream to whisk her off to whatever was next. But the man in the fancy clothes just stepped closer to her, and Maria shuffled backwards on her knees.

“You’ve caused a lot of trouble for dear old Jamie, you know,” he crooned. “He’s not happy with you, nope, not at all!” A high-pitched giggle rang through the otherwise silent warehouse.

Maria decided to humour her own consciousness, just this once. “Who are you?”

“Why, I’m George, of course!” the man stopped, and stared at her for a long moment. “And you’re a traitor.”

The grin vanished from the man’s face, and just for a second, he looked at her like he was disgusted by her very existence. He eyed her the way one would stare down someone they were ready to physically brawl.

And then the unnaturally wide smile was back. Maria felt like she was getting whiplash.

“You know what James says?” The man, George, clapped his hands together, waiting just a moment before continuing. “He says you’ll be back. He says you’re gonna come crawling back to him.”

“Does he, now?” Maria asked dryly, scooching a little further back on the floor.

“He does!” George just wouldn’t look at anything but her with those unnerving eyes. “Just remember: You’ll be back! Just like what I said to the Americans!”

Maria shook her head, and just waited for the dream to end. Not the strangest dream she’s had.

“He plans to take over on my birthday! My birthday! How lovely will that be!” George hesitated, pouting a little. “On a second thought, perhaps I wasn’t supposed to inform you of that.”

Maria opened her mouth, maybe to laugh, maybe to beg him to tell her more, but she was interrupted.

“It seems that I must go soon. I can’t stand the light for this long, even pretend light!” He let out another one of those hysterical giggles. “None of us can. It’s why James doesn’t like you!”

Maria stared back at him. She felt like this was some sort of important revelation, even if it was just the incomprehensible ramblings of her half-conscious mind.

The light coming from above them began to fade, but George just glowed brighter, the more it darkened. His pale cheeks grew rosy, his ratty hair curled more, and the jewels on his crown glittered like new.

“I’m not supposed to be here.” George said suddenly, as the light was roughly half-faded. “Not just in your dream. We shouldn’t still be here, after all these years.”

Then there was hardly any light left, and all Maria could fixate on was the glowing blue of George’s huge eyes. It felt like she was running out of time.

“Just remember,” George said, a deranged smile that she could not see audible in his voice. “You’ll be back, too!”

* * *

 

Maria woke up with a start. The sun was just starting to peek at her from in-between buildings, splashing cotton candy colours of pink and blue across the soft clouds above.

She grabbed her phone. 6:05 a.m.

Maria picked her laptop up, opened Google and typed with excitement for maybe the first time in a month and a half.

_Search: Mad King George’s birthday_

* * *

 

Maria didn’t want to worry Eliza with this new information. For all she knew, it was worthless, just strange memories of history lessons resurfacing in the form of lucid dreams.

Maria stared at the picture of King George III. Everything in the painting, from the white curls, to the giant, blue eyes matched perfectly to the man that Maria had seen in her dream.

Maria had heard the fact that you could never dream someone that you hadn’t already seen in real life.

She was pretty sure that she had never before seen a picture of King George III. And yet, she saw him, detail-perfect, in her dreams.

The 4th of June, King George’s birthday, was two weeks away. Not a lot of time to figure things out. But that was only if her dream really was some sort of strange vision, or prophecy.

_I can’t stand the light for this long._ Dream-King George had said. _None of us can._

Who was _us?_

Maria twisted her lips. She felt stupid, she was taking her dream far too seriously. But something tugged at her.

_I can’t stand the light..._

_The windows of the building all burst with light for a moment._

_It’s why James doesn’t like you!_

These seemingly separate pieces lined up together, and Maria realized that maybe, maybe they were part of the same picture.

Maria opened her hand and summoned an orb. The tiny sun hovered just above her palm, and Maria wondered just how she and that sphere fit into the puzzle.

* * *

 

Maria left her room, to see Eliza sitting at the kitchen table, sipping tea and munching on toast.

Strands of yet unbrushed hair fell into her eyes, she was barely awake, and she had crumbs in the corners of her lips, but Maria’s heart went all fuzzy at the sight of her anyway.

“I had a weird dream last night,” Maria said casually, sitting on the counter and picking at her chipped nail polish.

“Oh?” Eliza replied sleepily. She finished her tea. “What was it about?”

Maria swallowed, still fixated on her nail polish. It was so peaceful. The sun was shining blinding rays of light through the window, the kitchen smelled of toast, and the only sound was the passing of cars, down on the street. Maria didn’t want to ruin it.

“King George the Third.” Maria paused to let Eliza giggle a little at that. “But he said some things that are bothering me.”

Eliza raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

Maria shrugged. “Just… some things about my powers.” She brushed some curls out of her eyes. “And that James is going to attack on King George’s birthday.”

“Do you think it’s something to worry about?”

“Probably not, but,” Maria chose to get off the counter and sit next to Eliza. “He also said that James doesn’t like light. That’s why he doesn’t like me.”

Eliza frowned. “Do you believe him?”

“I don't, I don't know. I mean, obviously, it's just a dream, but what if it was my brain trying to make some sort of point to me?” Maria tugged wound some hair around her finger.

“Dreams aren't always just dreams,” Eliza reminded her. “Lafayette had that vision thing about Thoth and the warehouse, remember?”

Maria nodded. “But just because Laf is special doesn't mean we should consider every dream about powdered wigs to be true.”

“Of course not,” Eliza continued. “But Laf isn't the only special one. We have other powers, so why shouldn't we get the occasional dream-vision-whatever?”

“I don’t want to get worked up over nothing,” Maria tried.

“So we won’t get worked up,” Eliza bounced back calmly. “Let’s start at the beginning. Tell me everything that happened in this dream.”

So Maria told her. She started with the warehouse, then ended with King George’s chilling, _You’ll be back._ Eliza had a troubled expression on her face.

“‘None of us do.’ Who the hell is ‘us’?” she wondered aloud.

“He said, ‘We shouldn’t still be here after all these years.’” Maria replied. _“We_ shouldn’t still be here. If I were to take a guess, I’d say that it’s the same group as _us.”_

“Well, obviously he shouldn’t still be here.” Eliza brushed her finger around the rim of her empty mug. “He died hundreds of years ago.”

“So he’s a ghost.” Something clicked. “Do you think that _us_ is referring to some sort of ghost clan?”

Eliza laughed, a little incredulously. “A ghost clan that hates light?”

Maria shrugged, smiling a little herself. “James made a deal with the ghosts to get his powers,”

Eliza shook hair out of her eyes, smiling brightly. “I can’t believe that James was just a Salem witch this entire time,”

Maria laughed and leaned back, closing her eyes. “I say we burn him at the stake,”

“Agreed.” Though she wouldn’t see it, Eliza stared at Maria with, as one might say, hearts in her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao sorry for missing last week's update, my life has been kinda stressful recently
> 
> ANYWAY as i said before this chapter isn't very exciting, but it's important in the long run for figuring shit out about the amazing asshole himself, James
> 
> next chapter: lots of plot, lots of action, and, dare i say it, some fluff, because these girls DESERVE it
> 
> my tumblr is still @brightwritesstuff, ask! me! stuff! please!  
> [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sIMd8eoouyWry6WGQMpe0)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some action, some fluff, and the beginning of the end.

It was the 26th of May, nine days until James was supposedly supposed to execute his master plan. Maria was just walking home from work, when she caught wind of a conversation, happening  just a few feet away from her.

“Jesus, the dude comes back after a two month break with  _ that?” _ Maria whirls around to see a guy on his phone, leaning against a shop window. “Has Diana showed up to, like, fight back yet?”

A few beats go by, measured by Maria’s heart in her throat.

“Wait, she’s not with him? So he’s just there on his own?”

“Sorry, sir,” Maria interrupted. “But, uh, you’re talking about Prometheus, right?”

“Sorry, give me a sec,” he said into the phone, before lowering it. “Yeah, why?”

“Do you know where it’s going down?” she asked desperately.

“Queensboro Bridge, got anyone down there?” his eyes filled with something like sympathy. “Good luck, I guess,”

Maria thanked him, before swiftly pivoting and hurrying down the street, phone already out of her pocket.

“Hello?” Eliza’s voice said into her ear.

“Liza, turn on the news,” Maria said hurriedly, then mumbled a couple of apologies as she shoved people out of her way.

There was silence from her phone, and then the buzzing of the television. “Oh my God,” came a horrified whisper.

“What’s going on?” Maria asked breathlessly.

“There’s— Prometheus has kidnapped an entire bus of people,” Eliza’s voice was low and shaky. “I don’t, we can’t hear what he’s saying but everyone on the bus looks terrified.”

“Queensboro Bridge, right?” Maria took a deep breath to steady her voice.

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” Maria picked up her already fast pace. “I’m on 57th Street, so I’m about a ten or fifteen minute run from here. I’ll meet you there?”

“Got it.” Eliza’s voice was crackly, and not just because of the call.

Just as Maria was about to hang up, her stomach dropped drastically as she realized something. Her hands started to tremble. “Eliza,” she said. “I don’t have my suit with me.”

There was quiet for a moment. “That’s fine!” Eliza said hurriedly. “I’ll bring it, you’ll just have to wait—”

“No,” Maria said, determined despite the churning in her stomach. “That’ll take too long.”

“Maria, you can’t just out yourself as Freya!”

“So I won’t,” she replied. “I don’t need my powers for everything.”

“Maria, I swear to God—”

“I’ll talk to you soon,” and then she hit the  _ end call _ button before she pounding of her heart got the better of her.

Then, traitorously shaky hands tucked into her pockets, Maria started the run down to Queensboro Bridge.

* * *

 

The bus in question was completely surrounded by police cars, their owners all pointing their guns at one man, but unable to shoot for fear of hitting an innocent.

Slimy fucking bastard.

Numerous police officers tried to pull Maria back as she squirmed her way through the crowd, but James’ harsh training wasn’t for naught. She easily snapped and twisted her way out of every well-meaning grip.

There were cries of “Miss!” and “Ma’am, please!” as Maria broke out of the police circle and sprinted towards the bus of civilians.

She pried the doors open with some difficulty, and stepped into utter chaos.

There was sobbing and whimpering coming from every direction. Almost every passenger, from little kids to fully grown adults, seemed on the verge of a breakdown.

The few that weren’t, shrunk away from James at every given opportunity, as he strolled up and down the bus, a constant stream of low, unintelligible whispering falling from his lips.

There was something… off about James. Perhaps it was the wrinkles in his usually pristine suit, the raw scratches on the visible parts of his skin, or the distracted look in his eye, but he seemed far more… disheveled, than usual.

Maria stepped closer to him as he headed unknowingly back in her direction, tying her curls back into a ponytail.

James’ unfocused eyes darted towards her, and his cracked lips stretched into a grin. “Why, Miss Maria. You came back!”

Maria glared at him, ignoring the learned fear at the back of her mind, ever-present the moment she saw him. “Fuck you,”

“You never answered my texts, my dear,” He took another step forward. Maria moved back. “I was worried.”

“I’m sure you were.” Maria spat. “Now, what do you want with a bus full of innocents?”

“Why, isn’t it obvious?” James had a lazy, relaxed expression on his face. But it didn’t look quite right. “I wanted your attention, of course. You and that girl.”

One of the women near the two seemed to be calming down. She pulled out her phone and hastily started dialling a number.

James stopped, turned, and seemed to watch something just to the left of this woman’s head. He nodded, almost minisculely, then leaned down to murmur something into the woman’s ear.

The woman gasped. “How do you know that?” She asked, voice thick and accusing. James started to turn away, but the woman stopped him. “No! The only person who knew that is fucking  _ dead! _ How did you know that?”

Maria hastily stored that information away for later. Right now, she needed to get James off this bus. “Hey!”

James turned towards Maria. “What?”

Maria took a step back, towards the bus doors. “You wanted to have a talk, huh?” Another step. “So come over here and fucking talk to me.” Another.

As planned, James moved forward, closing some of the distance between him and Maria. “I’m more than willing to wait for your friend to show up to continue this conversation.” However necessary, Maria’s skin crawled at how close James had gotten to her. “And we both know, she  _ will _ show up.”

Maria’s face dropped. She fixed her wide eyes on something behind James, and sucked in a sharp gasp. “Oh my God,”

Without thinking, James turned around to see what she was looking at. Big mistake, on his part.

Maria didn’t miss a beat.

With a gleeful laugh, Maria grabbed both of James’ gloved wrists, throwing him completely off balance, and yanked him out the bus door. “You fell for the oldest trick in the book!”

In a tangle of thrashing limbs and curses, the two tumbled to the ground, kicking and scratching like brawling tomcats.

Maria pulled herself to her feet. She only needed to stall long enough for Eliza to get there, and it should be fine from then.

James aimed a kick at her abdomen, but she dodged. She attempted to land an uppercut to his jaw, but James caught her hand and twisted it.

She pulled her hand sharply out of his grip, but before she could try anything else, she felt herself being slammed into the ground.

Through blurry vision and the yells of the crowd around them, Maria peered up at James, who had her pinned to the ground by the throat.

“Useless, you know that?” James growled, staring down at her. “You’re no use to me anymore, and you’ve just demonstrated how you’re absolutely no fucking good to the other bird, either. I should kill you right now. It won’t make any difference in the long run. You are the definition of a  _ pawn.” _

James’ fingers tightened on her throat, and Maria clawed at them uselessly with her short, raggedy nails. She wheezed, trying to get the tiniest bit of air in.

“They say that strangling someone in real life actually takes a lot longer than in movies,” James said. “I’ve always been curious.”

Maria had known James for a long time. For a lot of that, she was aware that he wasn’t good person. She knew that, in simple terms, he was a giant, abusive asshole. But she had never seen James like this. She had never seen him this… this  _ deranged,  _ this completely  _ psychopathic. _ It didn’t seem like James was completely in charge of his own mind.

Maria’s mind flashed back to the man in her dream. King George III, or the Mad King, as they called him. Maria saw more of him than she saw James, in the man in front of her.

Maria met James’ eye, and for a second, they just stared, as Maria fought for air. Black dots were beginning to cloud her vision.

“Your mother misses you,  _ Mia,” _ James says, mockingly. If Maria could have breathed, at all, she would have stopped. “Says she always told you to watch out for the cold.”

Then there was a  _ whooshing _ sound, and a flash of blue sent James hitting the ground with a sickening  _ crack. _ Eliza, in costume, was on top of him, looking ready to pummel him to death with her bare fists.

Instead, though, she got off him, (not without delivering a forceful kick to his crotch area) and hurried over to Maria, who stared at her through blurry, concussed vision.

Maria distantly felt herself being picked up and carried through the air, felt the wind blowing through the curls that had escaped from her ponytail.

But, soon after, she was slipping away into unconsciousness, and all she registered was the feeling of someone pressing a shaky kiss to her forehead.

* * *

 

Maria awoke to the sound of the TV playing quietly from the sitting room. She opened her eyes blearily, resisting the urge to burrow back into her slumber.

Breathing hurt. Every in-and-out of the air going through her windpipe ached. Maria reached up, and gently pressed two fingers to the skin of her neck. She winced. Definitely bruised.

She then reached up to touch the back of her head, where she had been slammed into the ground. She certainly felt a lump there, but nothing too serious.

Maria sat up and slowly swung her legs over the side of her bed, then stood up. Big mistake, as she nearly fell back onto her bed with how much her head swam. Ouch. Her vision went black for a second, but, ever resilient, Maria stumbled to her bedroom door.

She spotted Eliza, curled up on the couch, watching the news. The news on the bus incident earlier.

“Hey,” Maria croaked, surprised by the hoarseness of her own voice.

Eliza jumped a foot in the air. “Maria!” she cried, whirling around. “You’re awake!”

Maria spread her hands. “So it seems,”

“Are you okay? How does you throat feel?” Eliza got up, hurried over, and cupped Maria’s face gently with her hands.

“It hurts,” Maria said honestly. “But I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine.”

“Maria,” Eliza sounded a little choked. “You were almost  _ strangled. _ If you ever pull a stunt like that again, I… I don’t even  _ know _ what I’ll do.”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” Maria tried for a smile. “Didn’t even out my powers.”

“But you are on national television,” Eliza countered. “And you have about a million missed calls from our friends. They’re frantic.”

Maria slumped. “I don’t really have the energy for that right now,”

“Don’t worry,” Eliza pulled her towards the couch. “I’ve already told them all that you’re fine.”

“Thank you so much,” Maria sighed, leaning into her. She almost relished the familiar warmth that filled her stomach at the feeling of being curled up with Eliza.

It was quiet for a while, the two of them watching the footage of Maria and Prometheus brawling with conflicting emotions.

Something came rushing back to Maria.

_ The only person who knew that is fucking dead! _

_ Your mother misses you, Mia. Says she always told you to watch out for the cold. _

Maria’s breath hitched.

“I think James actually can talk to ghosts,”

* * *

 

“Okay, so start from the beginning,” Eliza said, voice steady from her position, across from Maria at the kitchen table.

“We were on the bus,” Maria closed her eyes. “And this woman, I don’t know, she stops freaking out for a second. She’s trying to call someone, I guess, when James goes over and says something to her.”

Eliza nodded, leaning forward.

“This woman  _ immediately  _ flips her shit. She keeps asking how he knew about whatever he told her. Then, she says ‘The only person who knew that is dead!’”

Eliza pursed her lips. “There’s always the option that he had just read her mind and found it out from there,”

“That’s true,” Maria agreed. “But… there’s something else, as well.”

Eliza cocked her head to the side, long, dark hair spilling over her shoulder. “Yeah?”

“I— You know what happened to my mom, right?” Maria didn’t meet her eyes.

Eliza looked confused, but she nodded solemnly nonetheless. “Yeah, I mean, I know. But not the exact details,”

“She, uh,” This was both awkward and painful. Thinking about those memories made her heart hurt. “One day in December, she slipped on an icy step and broke her neck. Died of hypothermia.”

A warm hand covered Maria’s. “That’s— oh my God, that’s awful. I’m so sorry,”

Maria shrugged. “It was a long time ago.” She had to change the subject, before she actually cried. She never had the chance to get used to talking about this. “But the point is, James didn’t know that. I never told him. But today, he said something to me.”

“Go on.” Eliza’s hand was still on Maria’s.

“He said, ‘Your mother misses you, Mia. Says she always told you to watch out for the cold.’” Maria let out a breath, blowing curls out of her eyes. “I also never told him that Mom used to call me Mia, either.”

“Do you think he could have just read your mind and found those memories?” Eliza asked carefully, squeezing her hand.

“Remember the research we did on other superheroes with mind powers? They all said that the easiest memories to access are always the ones at the surface, the most recently remembered one,” Maria used her free hand to untie her hair, letting it bounce freely around her shoulders. “I hadn’t thought about Mom for months, at least. Shit, those memories should have been practically impossible find. Why was that the one he decided to bring up?”

Eliza chewed her lip, quiet for a while. “Maybe you’re right. That’s a pretty solid case for James the Ghost Whisperer.” she said finally. “You think he’s been talking to Mad King George?”

Maria rested her chin on her hand. “I think he’s been letting King George get to him,” she offered. “James... didn’t seem quite right in the head. Well, he never has been, honestly, but it’s a lot more  _ obvious _ now. I think he’s been listening to Mad King George  _ too much.” _

“And, if we’re going with the theory that your dream was legit, ghosts don’t like light,” Eliza tugged at her ear thoughtfully. “It’s no wonder James wanted you on his side.”

“Can he even read minds at all?” Maria speculated aloud. “Maybe he just gets all his gossip from ghosts.”

“He may not be able to read minds, but he definitely has some sort of controlling power.” Eliza lifted one shoulder uncomfortably. “Remember the thing at the intersection? He kinda, I don’t know, told me to go to sleep, and my body obeyed.”

Maria’s heart squeezed painfully. “Eliza,” she flipped her hand over and gripped Eliza’s. “I’m  _ so sorry, _ about all the shit I did to you and all the shit I let happen to you. I know I can’t apologize enough.”

Eliza smiled sadly. “Well,” she intertwined her fingers with Maria’s. “I guess we know there’s blame to share. I did crappy stuff to you too.”

“Oh my  _ God,” _ Maria let out a choked, but fond, laugh. “I can’t believe we’re trying to have a serious conversation and you’re quoting Wicked at me.”

“Excuse me?” Eliza leaned forward. “I’ll have you know that I  _ shed tears _ at that song.”

Maria made a sound, half-exasperated and half-affectionate. For a moment or ten, she thought that maybe, just maybe, things might turn out okay.

* * *

 

New York City was talking, that was for sure.

People talked about Prometheus and the bus full of civilians. There was whispered theories as to what Prometheus had done on that bus, and false sympathy passed from gossip to gossip. Nobody who had actually been on the bus would speak a word of what had happened to them.

There was talk of Freya, and where the hell she was. Some said that she had run away, gone into hiding. Others half-joked that maybe Prometheus had killed her. No one lost any sleep over it.

And, of course, people talked of the brave woman who had charged onto the bus to fight Prometheus. Her name was never released to the public, and the best picture of her was a blurry shot of her being pinned to the ground by Prometheus. Most people agreed that she had probably gotten onto the bus because a loved one, perhaps a child or significant other or friend, was on there. Nobody ever came forward as the woman, affectionately dubbed “the Badass of Queensboro Bridge.”

People talked. But they didn’t really care.

* * *

 

June 2nd. Doomsday was said to be in two days.

Tensions were high in the Lewis-Schuyler household. Maria was picking at the purple throw that they had on their couch, while Eliza sat cross-legged on the floor, flipping restlessly through the book she was reading. Neither spoke, but they both knew what the other was thinking about.

Eventually, Maria grew sick of just sitting around, and stood up, stretching. Eliza glanced at her curiously.

Maria headed to the kitchen, grabbed a cookbook off the shelf, and returned to the sitting room. She offered Eliza a hand. “C’mon,”

“What are we doing?” Eliza allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.

“Ever heard of stress-baking?” Maria led Eliza into the kitchen, before opening the recipe book. Eliza raised an eyebrow, peering at the pages.

“I’d say that we should probably be doing more productive things,” Eliza lifted herself to perch on the countertop, “But I guess sitting around isn’t too productive either.”

“You’re saying that baking isn’t productive?” Maria grinned at her over the top of the book. “Anyway, how do chocolate chip cookies sound for you? Given our lack of experience, I’d say that they’re among our safest bets.”

“Perfect.” Eliza pulled out a large bowl and a tray. “What are our ingredients?”

“We should start with flour, salt, and baking soda.” Maria read. “Also, I think a spoon would help.”

“Ha ha,” Eliza rolled her eyes, but not without a smile.

They mixed the dry ingredients with an electric mixer, but ended up just getting flour all over their counter and clothes. Eliza smirked mischievously, flicking some at Maria.

“Oh, no.” Maria crossed her arms. “We are  _ not _ getting into a food fight in the middle of our kitchen.”

Eliza raised an eyebrow, before clapping her dusty hands, letting the baking soda and flour mixture fly everywhere. “Like this?”

Maria glared at her, but relented. She threw a small handful of flour at Eliza, hitting her in the chest. “We’re going to have to clean this up, y’know,”

Eliza grinned, swatting some right back at Maria. “Isn’t knowing you shouldn’t be doing it half the fun?”

“I really do think that we should just finish making these cookies,” Maria took a step back, as she noticed Eliza had her hand in the bag of flour. “Wait, what—”

With a devilish look on her face, Eliza lifted out a full handful of flour. Maria shrieked, sprinting to the other end of the (not that big) kitchen, Eliza chasing behind her.

And then she had nowhere else to run, and Eliza was right behind her. Maria turned around, mouth open with some witty line about  _ this being the end. _ But the words died in her throat as she realized that Eliza was even closer than originally thought. As in, they were practically nose-to-nose.

For a moment that seemed like eternity, the two women just stood like that. Faces flushed, breathes heavy, clothes covered in flour.

Eliza was achingly close. Their breaths mingles in the humid kitchen air, eyes locked. It was painfully cliché, but Maria could see the faint little cinnamon freckles sprinkled warmly across Eliza’s nose and cheeks. Her eyes were the same rich brown as the chocolate that they were putting into the cookies.

Maria’s eyes flicked down to Eliza’s soft-looking lips. Just the smallest movement, barely a jerk of the head, and the two would be brushing lips. Maria licked her lips nervously.

_ Kiss her. _

For a moment, and only a moment, Maria leaned forward a millimeter. Her eyelids drooped just a tad, and she thought,  _ I’m really going to do it. _

But then there was a  _ poof, _ and Maria felt something hit her feet. She glanced down, to see flour covering the floor around her and Eliza.

Eliza jumped, and the spell was broken. Maria’s cheeks flushed even redder than they did before, and she cleared her throat, hard, not meeting Eliza’s eyes. Eliza’s voice cut through the tension. “Oh my God, I dropped the flour.”

Maria glanced at Eliza, before bursting into laughter. “Nice,” she wheezed. A few moments went by. “I think we should get back to baking.”

The cookies ended up a flop. They spent ages cleaning up the flour, Eliza tried to crack an egg into the bowl and somehow missed the bowl entirely, and they realized near the end that they had forgotten to preheat the oven, meaning that they had to wait even longer.

But, as the two sat in their warm kitchen, munching not-quite-right cookies and lazily tossing banter back and forth, Maria thought to herself that there was nowhere else she’d rather be.

* * *

 

There was no mistaking when it was finally time for The Big Showdown.

Haunting screams echoed throughout New York City. But, that wasn’t even the scary part. The scary part was that no one could figure out where the screams were coming from. They seemed to come out of the air itself, sending shrieks travelling up and down the streets, causing goosebumps to those who heard them.

Before the screams started, Maria and Eliza hadn’t been doing much of anything. They had been sitting quietly in their apartment, Eliza binge-drinking tea and Maria staring tensely out the window.

The moment the first screech rang out, Maria whipped around to lock eyes with her best friend. Eliza pursed her lips, before setting down her sixth mug of tea, and standing up.

“I guess it’s time,” she said softly.

Maria could do nothing but nod.

Neither of them wanted to think about what this being the final fight meant. It really was all or nothing, at this point. They either lose, and God knows what would happen from there, or they win and, well. Maria didn’t really know what that would entail either.

As Maria shakily pulled on her suit in her room, she thought about the sunrise of that morning, and wondered if she had already watched it for the last time.

_ These aren’t good thoughts for the present situation. _

So Maria just took a deep breath, and slipped her mask on.

* * *

 

The screams seemed to get louder if you followed them in a certain direction.

“I think that this is James’ way of telling us where he is,”  Maria murmured, and Eliza hummed in understanding.

“It just kinda feels like a trap to go exactly where he wants us to.” Eliza stared across the New York horizon, from the top of the skyscraper where the two perched.

“What other choice do we have?”  Maria kicked a pebble off the edge. “There’s no other way of finding him.”

Eliza sighed, but didn’t seem to have any argument for that. “This doesn’t feel right,”

“I’ll drink to that,”  Maria pointed west. “I think the screams are loudest in that direction.”

Diana had the upper hand when it came to travelling through the city, with her ability to summon swinging vines out of anywhere, such as buildings and the ground. In the past,  Freya would struggle to keep up, climbing and leaping from building to building.

Now, Eliza pulled  Maria to her firmly. Meaning that their bodies were practically pressed together. Now, Maria and Eliza had been close together before, but never while wearing almost skin-tight superhero gear, and in broad daylight, rather than the comfort and security of their own apartment.

“Hold on,” Eliza’s clear voice and warm breath, right in her ear, caused shivers to run up and down  Maria ’s spine. But she obeyed nonetheless, wrapping her arms around Eliza’s neck.

And then,  Maria was swinging through the air. Her stomach seemed to fly away completely, and she lost all sense of direction, and  _ oh God she’s going to throw up. _

All  Maria could do was tighten her grip on Eliza, bury her face in her collarbone, and wait for it to be over.

After too long of having nothing solid but Eliza to cling to, they stopped swinging. Eliza tapped  Maria ’s shoulder gently, cautiously. “You okay?”

Maria reluctantly pried herself away from Eliza. “We are. Never doing that again,” she rasped.

Eliza laughed. “Trust me, you get used to it after a while,” she paused. “I think James is in there.”

Maria looked in the direction that Eliza was pointing, to see a dusty, decrepit, warehouse. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,”

“It seems that James has a style,” Eliza replied grimly. “And that style is ugly old warehouses.”

* * *

 

The screams were almost unbearable inside the warehouse. They seemed to come from the walls themselves, and every echo amplified them.  Maria felt the urge to squint at the noise. She glanced to the side, and saw Eliza rubbing her ears agitatedly.

Maria wanted to say something, something like  _ we can do this together _ or  _ let’s get this over with  _ or  _ I love you. _ But there was no way to be heard over the wails, so she did her best to tear her eyes away from Eliza and pray that if it was between the two of them, Eliza would be the one to make it out.

They found James standing in the middle of the second floor of the warehouse. He turned around on his heel, and every screech simultaneously went deathly silent.

He gave the two women a not-quite-right smile. “Nice of you two to join me,”

Maria scoffed. “Jesus, could you get any more stereotypical?”

“However you two see me,” James laced his gloved fingers together. “I didn’t come here to fight.”

“Oh yeah?”  Maria took a challenging step forward, before stilling at Eliza’s hand on her arm. “So why  _ are _ we here?”

“I came,” James flicked a light switch turning on a single, dangling lightbulb, which illuminated a scene of three mismatched chairs. “To talk.”

Maria actually laughed at that. “You really think that we’re just gonna sit down with you and have tea and biscuits like this is Sunday lunch?”

The doors behind them swung shut with a  _ click. _ “You don’t exactly have a choice,”

And that’s how  Maria and Eliza ended up sitting on rotting chairs, trying to communicate silently and avoid looking at James.

“I want to propose an… alliance,” James said, and  Maria felt like she should be doing a spit take. “Maria, you and I could rule the world.”

Maria laughed again, but it was more of a harsh, sarcastic cackle. “Why would I  _ ever _ agree to work for you again?” she shuddered at the thought. “And what about Eliza?”

“She can come too,” James dismissed.

“I’m right here, y’know,” Eliza scowled, crossing her arms.

“ Maria , what you don’t understand is that you and I are meant to be together,” James continued as if Eliza wasn’t there.  Maria felt nauseous, and Eliza leaned forward indignantly. “We are darkness and light. Yin and Yang.”

“Since when are your powers about darkness?”  Maria stared at him.

“I suppose I should tell you the truth,” James paused, probably for dramatic effect. “I can’t actually read minds.”

“I knew it,” Eliza breathed. “You can talk to ghosts!”

“Yes and no,” James gave her a judgemental side-eye, like she was stupid. Maria wanted to punch his face in. “I can talk to spirits of the past, but they’re not ghosts. They’re more like… shadows. Echoes. Imprints left behind. They aren’t the people themselves, they’re imitations based on what other people saw them as.

“The Shadows are always whispering, especially to me. They hover around the people they loved and whisper the secrets they never spoke aloud in life.”

Maria swallowed. “And, these…  _ Shadows. _ They don’t—?” she hastily cut herself off before she could finish that question.  _ They don’t like light? _

But maybe it was best if James didn’t know that maybe they knew his weakness. The asshole in question just glanced at her oddly.

Eliza pushed a hand through her hair. “Why exactly should we agree to work for you?”

“Work  _ with _ me.” Both women scoffed at that. “And, just think about it. Together, we could rule the world. We could end all war, all poverty, all suffering.”

“This is the most cliché villain speech I’ve ever heard,”  Maria muttered. Eliza huffed a laugh.

_ “And,” _ James continued, sending the two a glare. “It means that I won’t kill you both.”

“Become your lackeys or die,”  Maria mused. “You’re not giving us a lot of options here,”

“You honestly think that we’re going to agree to serve you?” Eliza stared at him with raised eyebrows. “For a guy who named himself after a god of forethought, you’re pretty dim.”

James smiled. “Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance,”

He stood up, brushing imaginary dust off his suit.  Maria tensed, and Eliza clenched her fists, but James made no violent move towards them.

“I’ll meet you two at the Chrysler Building after sunset,” he informed them. “Don’t follow me,”

“Why can’t you just fight us here?”  Maria crossed her arms. James ignored her, turning around to leave. “Wait a second!”

She tried to go after him, but her feet refused to move. Try as she might, they were glued to the floor. Next to her, Eliza seemed to be in the same situation.

“What the hell?” Eliza bleated. She shot out a vine to try and pull James back, but a shadowy, disembodied hand grabbed it and the vine dissolved. 

James glanced back, and smirked infuriatingly. “I never said that I didn’t have mind  _ controlling _ powers,” he snarked. And with that, James left the two in there, gaping after him.

“What the fuck was that?”  Maria whispered. She stared at the place where the floating hand had been, one minute there, then gone.

“If I had to guess,” Eliza took a deep breath. “I’d say that that hand belonged to a Shadow.”

“But…”  Maria swallowed. “We can’t see them. We aren’t supposed to see them. I— I didn’t think that they could interact with the living. What the  _ fuck.” _

“Not only that, but only James is supposed to be able to hear them,” Eliza twisted her fingers. “Everyone in New York could hear them screaming. They’re getting more… solid. Tangible, I guess. Which means…”

“James must be getting more powerful,”  Maria finished. “It’s all building up to today.”

She tugged at her foot again, and this time it came free. The other finally allowed her to move, too. Eliza did the same, and the two exchanged a silent look. They hurried out the door after James, to see nothing. Unsurprisingly, he was long gone.

For now, it was a waiting game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: i only put the baking scene in there because i felt like this fic was seriously missing some relationship development/self indulgence/fluff in general. also, i had been doing some baking recently and projected onto eliza.
> 
> next chapter: the Big Fight, the epilogue
> 
> my tumblr is @brightwritesstuff, i have no life so i'm always open to talk
> 
> [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sIMd8eoouyWry6WGQMpe0)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle ends today.

The sun was only just beginning to brush the horizon. New York City remained unchanged, despite the shock from earlier that day. Joggers walked their dogs through parks, teenagers laughed with their friends, couples held hands under the table in coffee shops, and little kids tried to find shapes in the rose-coloured clouds of dusk.

Maria wondered what would happen to them if Prometheus won. She’d rather die than let that happen.

Eliza kicked her ankle gently. The two women were sitting on one of the ledges on the Chrysler Building, legs dangling. “What’s up?”

Maria considered her options. “Us,” she said, leaning back on her hands.

A pause.  Maria could physically see the moment when Eliza got it. “You’re not getting out of it that easily,” Eliza kept her big, exasperated, stupidly beautiful eyes on  Maria ’s face. “You seem pretty deep in thought about something.”

There was a  _ whoosh _ of air as  Maria let out the breath she was holding. Her shoulders slumped. “I’m just nervous,” she admitted. “Not… just about what’s gonna happen to us. What’s gonna happen to the whole  _ city.” _

Eliza tilted her head to the side. “Are you worried about what’ll happen to them in the battle, or what’ll happen to them in the aftermath?”

“A bit of both, honestly,”  Maria rubbed her face with her hand. “Mainly the aftermath. What will James do to them?”

“We don’t need to know,” Eliza said calmly. “Because there’s more than one outcome in this situation.”

Maria smiled. God, she loved the woman beside her  _ so fucking much. _ “Well, one of us has to be the pessimist here,”

Eliza wrapped an arm around her shoulders.  Maria leaned into the touch. “Being pessimistic isn’t going to help anyone. I mean you’re the one who should be looking on the  _ bright _ side, right?”

It took  Maria a second to get it, but she laughed despite herself. She buried her face in Eliza’s neck. “I can’t believe you,”

Eliza snickered, and  Maria felt the vibrations from it. She let her eyelids flutter, and if not for the upcoming battle, she would have felt totally at peace. She felt Eliza rest her head on top of  Maria ’s.

She wouldn’t let James take this away from her, she decided finally.

That’s when she spotted a small, black and white figure strolling towards the building. He was far, far down below her, but she could almost see the cocky swagger and the arrogant smirk.

“He’s here,”  Maria said softly. Eliza nodded.

They separated, and  Maria held back a shudder as icy air seeped into her skin. She sent a glare towards the tiny figure on the ground for making her move away from her best friend. Her favourite person. Unrequited love of her life.

Maria closed her eyes for a second, before making up her mind. She caught Eliza’s hand quickly, fighting the urge to lace their fingers together.

Eliza turned around questioningly. “Yeah?”

Wisps stuck out from her hasty bun, burning in the light of the setting sun. Her lips were quirked into a little half-smile, eyes crinkled at the edges.  Maria had the sudden, but familiar desire to kiss her. She tightened her grip on Eliza’s hand instead.

Maria took a deep breath. “Be careful, okay? We have absolutely no idea what he’s capable of,”

Eliza just stared at her for a second, a funny, almost pained look on her face. She shot forward without warning, wrapping her arms around  Maria . “You too,” she whispered.

Maria wanted to stay in this moment forever, just so that she wouldn’t even have to face whatever was waiting on the ground. It was gut-wrenchingly possible that one or both of them wouldn’t make it out of this.

But she shook those thoughts away. A voice that sounded like Eliza said that that kind of thinking was only going to make the upcoming fight even harder.

Maria pressed closer to Eliza for a second, then pulled back. Silently, the two surveyed the man below them, standing at the base of the building.

There was something indescribable in the air between them. “Let’s go,” Eliza said quietly.

* * *

 

It was only once they reached the bottom that they realized that the street was unnaturally empty and silent. It was like some sort of abandoned ghost town.

New York City was never this quiet.

_ “Finally,” _ James’ eyes glowed an eerie white. “Jesus, I’m not getting any younger down here.”

Maria opened her mouth to shoot something back, maybe a comeback, maybe just an insult. But then there was a rumbling sound. Coming from all around them.

Feet. It was the sound of hundreds of feet.

Civilians appeared, spilling into the street that the three of them were on. Moving stiffly and in perfect unison, they all wore ordinary, everyday clothes and blank expressions. The mob, hundreds and hundreds of people who previously had perfectly ordinary lives, ambled closer to the three of them.

Normal people didn’t move like that.

Possibly the most disturbing part was the confusion and terror in their eyes.

The possessed mini-army formed a perfect circle around James, Eliza, and  Maria . James spread his arms, giving the two women his trademark shit-eating grin. “Last chance to surrender,”

Maria ’s stomach was flipping uncontrollably, and her breath was coming in sharp gulps. But Eliza caught her eye, and they stared at one another for a moment.  _ We’ll go down together. _

Eliza jerked her knee suddenly, striking James directly in the groin. Immediately, he doubled over, and the crowd surrounding them let out wails. Nothing happened for a moment, until James lifted his head.  Maria found a disturbing amount of satisfaction in the pain on his face.

“Fucking… get them!” he wheezed, still clutching his crotch.

The mass responded instantaneously, reaching out for the two superheros.  Maria took several steps back, but could only go so far before running into the other side of the crowd.

“ Maria !” she looked over to see Eliza’s extended hand, the other wrapped around a vine protruding from the Chrysler Building. She took it without a second thought, holding on for dear life as they whipped through the air once again.

They landed on the lowest ledge, but  Maria ’s relief was short-lived, as the civilians started flooding into the entrances, probably making their way up the stairs and would soon be able to reach them through the windows.

However James controlled these people’s minds, it wouldn’t make them any physically stronger. She had no doubt that some would topple off the ledge in their attempts to reach her and Eliza.

“We can’t stay here,”  Maria tried to say firmly, but it came out as more of a gasp. Eliza nodded, still holding  Maria firmly to her.

“God— we’re in a lose-lose situation,” Eliza’s brows furrowed helplessly, “We can’t hurt the civilians,”

“But... they’ll hurt us,”  Maria clenched her fists. “You’re right. What’re we supposed to do?”

“I don’t…” Eliza’s eyes tracked something on the ground. “James.”

“What?”  Maria tried to follow her gaze. “Oh! Oh. You mean we have to cut it off at the source.”

“Like a weed,” Eliza continued. “You can’t just snip the leaves. You have to pull it up by the roots.”

If they weren’t in such a serious situation,  Maria would giggle at the nerdiness of Eliza making a plant comparison. “It’s gonna be hard to catch him,”

“Yep,” Eliza scowled uncharacteristically. “He’s gonna cover himself with as many civilians as possible.”

“Slimy asshole,”  Maria tightened her grip on Eliza, glaring down at the little figure on the ground.

Eliza let out an unexpected laugh, the light in her eyes returning just a bit. “That—”

But then there were footsteps echoing from inside the building. The two shared a glance.  _ We can’t stay here. _

Eliza shot out another vine, swinging to a lower building before the mob literally killed themselves in an attempt to catch them. The journey went a little smoother this time, in  Maria ’s opinion.

“This should buy us a little time,” Eliza panted, steadying herself.  Maria shook her head to be rid of the dizziness.

But they were going to need a bigger strategy. Obviously, running away couldn’t help them forever. “Do you think we could take James by surprise?”

“I don’t know,” Eliza said slowly. “I mean, we know he can’t read minds, but what if his ghosts alert him or whatever?”

“We might need to take that chance,”  Maria replied. “We clearly can’t go brute force,”

“He’s sitting in the middle of the intersection,” Eliza pointed out, “It’s gonna be hard to sneak up on him,”

Maria glanced at her. “From how far away do your powers work?”

* * *

 

So that’s how  Maria and Eliza ended up hiding on the ledge of another building on the corner of the Chrysler intersection. The possessed crowd was still tearing the Chrysler apart in an attempt to find the two superheros.

Maria glanced at Eliza. “You ready?”

Eliza nodded, closing her eyes.  Maria peered over the edge, watching intently as vines peeked through the concrete, so slowly that James, who was sitting smugly in the middle of the intersection, didn’t notice.

The vines grew longer and thicker, making circles around James’ wrists and ankles, but not actually touching them.

Maria took a breath, looking back at Eliza. She was going a little pale, but the determination in her expression never faltered.  Maria smiled as she felt something grow in her chest.

A shout came from the intersection. “What the fuck?”

Maria ’s gaze shot back to James, just in time to see the vines snapping closed around his limbs, effectively tying him in place.

She jumped the short drop to the ground, Eliza following soon after. James was fighting against his restraints, looking bewildered. There were footsteps coming from the Chrysler building as civilians came pouring out of it.

But  Maria and Eliza were prepared for that. They got to James way before the mob could,  Maria kneeling next to him and shoving her palm to his temple.

“Call them off!”  Maria shouted. “Call them off or you know what I’ll do,”

James closed his eyes and sighed, but obeyed. “Stop!” the horde of people came to a dead halt in the middle of the road.

“You’re trapped,” Eliza told him, kneeling down so that they were eye-to-eye.

James smirked irritatingly. “Guess so,” he said, flexing his arms from beneath the vines.

Maria pressed her hand harder into his skull. “We’re not messing around,” she added forcefully, willing her arm not to tremble.

“So what do you want me to do?” The smug grin never faded from his face. “Relinquish control?”

“That would be nice,” Eliza said, crossing her arms. “So let them go.”

“I’ll stop controlling the civilians,” James tilted his chin up, “And you’ll tell your bitch to back off,”

Eliza’s gaze hardened even further, dropping her arms from where they were crossed to clench her hands into fists. “Fine,” she gritted.

James gaze turned to the civilians. “Leave,” he told them.

The mob shifted, before dispersing, scattering in all different directions.

“How do we know that you won’t just call them back?” Eliza demanded.

James shrugged. “I can only reach out to them from a certain distance. In about five minutes, I won’t be able to control any of them anymore,”

Maria ’s head spun. “Okay,” she said, as calmly as she could. She took her hand away from his temple. “We’re gonna wait until the police show up, and then you’ll be handed over to them.”

“What the hell makes you think that I’m just gonna sit and wait to be put in some fucking prison?” James tugged lightly at his restraints, as whispers of wind drifted up from every street.

“Because you have no other choice?” Maria stared at him, something heavy curling in her stomach.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” to both the superheroes’ horror, the vines trapping James then shrivelled up and flopped to the ground uselessly. “‘Cause I have a backup army.”

The wind got louder, the whispers turning into murmurs. Maria’s breath caught in her throat, and she saw Eliza go rigid next to her. “What are you—”

The streetlights went out.

Through the faint darkness of dusk, Maria squinted to see vague shapes, moving steadily towards them. At first, she thought that James had called the civilians back. Then she realized that their footsteps weren’t making any sound.

“Shadows,” Maria breathed. “Eliza, he’s got Shadows!”

Eliza’s head shot up, staring at the gloomy figures coming at them from the end of the north street. “Shit,” she whispered.

Maria grabbed Eliza’s hand. Eliza squeezed her’s an equally helpless expression on her face. James grinned.

“Introducing my backup army, girls,” he said breezily. “And here’s the best part: there’s so many dead people in New York City, I pretty much can’t run out of ‘em.”

Maria closed her eyes.  _ These things can kill plants. What can they do to people? _

Suddenly, a memory of a voice forced itself to the surface.  _ I can’t stand the light for this long. None of us can. _

_ I can’t stand the light. _

It wasn’t the most reliable option. Really, she had no idea what parts of her dream were true or what parts were just her brain making shit up, but. They had literally no other option.

Maria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She flung her hand out in front of her and shot a beam of light at the ever-clearer figures.

There were choking wails, and some Shadows flung themselves to the side before the light could hit them. Others weren’t so lucky, seemingly melting into the ground with agonized shrieks.

“Maria,” Eliza clung to her hand. “That was amazing!”

James wasn’t so happy. “What the hell?” he growled, yanking Maria’s free hand, forcing her to turn around and face him.

But Maria tore her hand back. More gently, she extracted her hand from Eliza’s and held both of her palms out in front of her.

Maria concentrated hard for a second, sending a shockwave of light into the moving shapes of the darkness. More cries from the dissolving figures.

“Destroy them all you like,” James gritted. “There’s too many for you to kill them all.”

Maria took a step forward, suddenly feeling more in control than she had in  _ months. _ She sent another beam of light rocketing into the whirling mass of almost-people. They once again scattered like bowling pins. She let out an echoing whoop, grinning.

But she felt a small hand grab her arm. “Maria,” Eliza said firmly. “You heard him. There’s too many of them,”

Maria glanced back at her for a moment. It was intoxicating, the rush of using her powers, sending them out in hot, brilliant flashes, and for once she didn’t feel guilty about it. It felt so fucking good to watch the Shadows dissipate.

But she watched new Shadows refill the gaps where the others had once been, almost instantly healing whatever losses she may have made in their army.

Maria pivoted around, meeting Eliza’s eyes for only a second before pulling her away from James and the Shadows. James watched them with dark, gleaming, eyes for a second. He, too, turned away, strolling leisurely towards the buzzing fog of figures.

“What do you propose we do?” Maria asked lowly, keeping her gaze meeting Eliza’s.

Eliza pursed her lips. “Our best option is the one we tried before,” she whispered back. “Cutting it off at the source.”

Maria frowned. “Fool me once,” she murmured. “I don’t think he’s going to fall for the same trick twice.”

“Then we’ll have to go hand-to-hand,” Eliza looked away, back at James.

“I don’t like our odds on that one,” Maria pushed a hand through her hair. “I mean, if we were actually fighting James himself, maybe. But while he’s hiding behind an entire army of weird shadow demons?”

“Like you said, he’s not going to fall for the same trick twice,” Eliza crossed her arms. “Maybe we could get the Shadows to turn on James?”

“I don’t know, I think they’re kinda tied to his powers. Like, we don’t know if they’re actually sentient beings, or like he said, echoes.” Maria wracked her brain. “Got any long-range weapons?”

“We literally don’t even have any weapons at all,” Eliza pointed out. “I still think that beating him at hand-to-hand is our best bet, after tricking him,”

“We really have some shitty options here,”

“I don’t really know what you were expecting,” Eliza raised an eyebrow. “We’re fighting a supervillain.”

“Really? I didn’t realize,” Maria nudged her with her elbow. “I don’t know, I was hoping that two on one would give us some sort of advantage,”

“It really is unfair that James gets to control half the city, while I get, y’know, trees,” Eliza grumbled, but she smiled.

“I think your powers are super cool,” Maria replied without thinking. “They’re cute, and they suit you.”

Eliza’s grin turned softer, and she looked away. If Maria squinted through the darkness, she could easily pretend that there was a flush spreading across Eliza’s face. “Same goes for you, firefly."

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Firefly?” her tone was light. Eliza’s face went even darker.

“I don’t know!” she covered her face with her hands. “It kinda just came out! It suits you, anyway.”

“Ha ha,” Maria pulled her hair back into a ponytail, blowing at the curls that escaped and bounced onto her forehead.

“Not just because of your powers, though,” Eliza continued, still a little flustered. “You’re just… bright. In general.”

Maria glanced back at her. Eliza’s eyes sparkled, even in the gloomy darkness of the unlit street. Her small, gentle smile practically glowed. “You too,” Maria couldn’t help but respond softly.

Eliza stared at her, biting her lip. She took a step forward, towards Maria, still holding her gaze. “Maria, listen, if we don’t—”

“Are you girls just gonna stand there chatting all day?” A voice interrupted from the intersection. Maria wished that he could feel her glare from twenty feet away. “Time’s-a ticking,”

A heavy silence settled over the women for a single moment, but then Maria had to offer her hand to Eliza. “C’mon,” she said, smoothing down her suit for the future fight. “We can only stall for so long,”

Without hesitation, Eliza slid her hand into Maria’s, and laced their fingers together. They shared a look, just a hint of a smile playing on Eliza’s lips, and Maria tugged her towards the commotion.

“So we’re going hand-to-hand?” Maria asked, giving up on trying to think of a better idea.

“What other choice do we have?” Eliza raised an eyebrow. “Anyway, it’s two against one, right?” she squeezed their interlocked hands.

Maria nodded. “Right,” she said, the strength in her voice surprising even her.

Eliza beamed. “I think I’ve got an attack idea,” she shook a couple of dark strands out of her eyes. “But you need to trust me, okay?”

That much, Maria could do. “Of course,” she replied. Eliza squeezed their hands again, before letting go completely, leaving Maria’s hand feeling uncomfortably cold.

Eliza shot out a long, rope-like vine, locking eyes with Maria for a split second before swinging out into the gloom, fading out of vision. Maria watched after her for a moment, reeling. But a shout startled her out of her thoughts.

“Holy shit! Did your girlfriend just straight up up and leave you?” James chuckled darkly. “Can’t say I’m surprised, to be honest.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Maria responded easily. She shot a beam towards him, but a Shadow took it for him, before crumbling to a dull sort of dust.

“C’mon, you can do better than that,” James jeered from within his circle of almost-human shields. Maria took a few steps to the side, never taking her eyes off him.

She sent two orbs at once, something that she had never tried before. One missed the mark, but the other bounced onto one of the Shadow’s heads, reducing it to a hissing pile of dust.

She strode forward, shooting another beam into James’ little protective circle, before sending two more in rapid succession, not giving the Shadows time to regroup.

To her surprise, it sort of worked. There was a gaping hole in the wall of Shadows that was shielding James from her attack. She attempted to send another beam into James himself, but a Shadow blocked, her way.

So she has to be fast.

She darted around the circle, shooting orbs and beams and whatever she could into any gaps. She missed, but got closer every time, the Shadows only just catching it.

Maria dove towards a space, sending a shockwave directly towards James. He stumbled, gasping as blisters erupted on his cheeks.

The Shadows around James shrieked in a strange, warbling way, gathering around him. They were so close that they seemed to blur together, into one giant, moving mass of vague darkness.

James let out a deep, smooth laugh, sending shivers throughout Maria’s body. “You’re only wearing yourself out,” he said. The tremor in his voice was almost,  _ almost _ unnoticeable.

That shook Maria back into her body. The stiffness in her limbs, the bone-deep ache that always accompanied overusing her powers. She was going to burn out, all too soon. Shadows glided towards her from the murky streets, each spilling dark secrets of their past lives in hushed, garbled whispers.

Maria’s head swam.

“They say that the brightest flames burn out the fastest,” James limped towards her, lips stretched into a strange, closed-mouth smile. “I’m afraid that you’ve run out of fuel.”

Maybe it was the exhaustion, maybe Maria had hit her head somewhere, maybe she was losing her marbles. But Maria swore that she was seeing double.

She pried her tired lips apart. “What,” she asked hoarsely. “What the hell does King George the Third have to do with any of this?”

The figure kept separating and blending back into James. Maria could have said that it was just double vision, but the second figure was wearing odd, old-timey clothes and a powdered wig. James gave a not-quite-himself grin. “A mentor, I suppose you could say,” he brushed some dust off his shoulder. “He gave me advice as to how to use my powers and take over the world. In return, I gave him a little piece of control over me. A taste of what he had when he was living.”

Maria stared into James’ wild eyes, and wondered just how much control had really been given. “Why…” Maria frowned, dizziness hitting her suddenly. “Why would you go to the Mad King, the man who lost the war, who lost America, for advice on how to take over the world,”

Something happened in James’ eyes. The overly-bright fog cleared, and for just a moment, he looked just as confused as she felt. But then the giddy look was back, and James shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Why should I answer your questions?”

“One more,” Maria took a deep breath, and the Shadows pressed ever closer. “What happened that night in the warehouse?”

“We had an argument— A punishment! A punishment!” James’ smooth sentence seemed to hiccup halfway through, and his voice got higher, less steady. “The King demanded more control. I denied, like the fool I was. But he got what he wanted!”

Maria was just about to beg James to kill her just so that she wouldn’t have to listen to him anymore, when an angel swooped in and saved the day.

That angel happened to be Eliza, and she easily picked Maria up by the biceps, before swinging onto a higher building.

“You okay?” Eliza asked, noting Maria’s tired, pale face. But Maria nodded with more strength than she could have a month ago.

“What’s the plan?” Maria inquired urgently, pulling at a curl of hair. Eliza’s hand caught it almost reflexively, pulling Maria’s hand away.

“How fast can you use your powers?”

That’s how the two ended up standing straight, at the edge of the building, preparing themselves. Eliza gripped Maria’s arms, getting ready to swing into the battle.

“It’s all or nothing, right?” Maria stared into Eliza’s eyes. “I won’t have the energy for this twice.”

“That’s not something we need to think about.” Eliza replied. “Just focus on preparing yourself.”

“I’m already prepared,” Maria turned towards the edge. “Let’s get this over with,”

Eliza pulled Maria close to her, grip so tight that it was almost protective. “Maria, listen,” she poked Maria’s side insistently, forcing the the other superhero to meet her eyes. “Don’t burn yourself out, okay?”

It was so strangely similar to what James had said, it should have freaked Maria out. But this way was softer, more concerned, more familiar. So Maria just shook some curls out of her eyes, and set her brows. “We’re finishing this tonight, and I don’t care how. I can’t… really make promises,”

Eliza bit her lip unhappily. “No,” she squeezed Maria’s waist. “I’m not making a new world without my… my best friend. Without you. So you’re staying alive, whether you like it or not.”

“Can we just go?” Maria asked desperately, something tight clawing up her throat.

Eliza just nodded rigidly, looking away before taking off, and Maria forced herself to stop thinking about what Eliza had said.

The two swung, gaining momentum quickly. Eliza’s grip purposefully slipped, helped by gravity, and Maria slid down so that they were only gripping each other’s wrists.

Then, Eliza let go.

As Maria flew towards the mass of Shadows surrounding James, she summoned one last blast of energy.

She pictured her friends, as the coldness of the Shadows dug into her. Memories of Alex ranting drunkenly in a tiny, shitty pub, with all their other friends egging him on. Angelica and Peggy braiding Maria’s hair, the first time that Maria realized that they had accepted her as Eliza’s friend. The feeling of pride at realizing how far Lafayette’s English had come. The feeling of fondness at watching John and Alex interact, wondering how long it would take for those dumb nerds to get over themselves. And, of course, Eliza.

Eliza’s quiet, comforting words as Maria had another dream about James, Eliza making her tea with extra cinnamon and presenting it with such bright eyes, Eliza staying up late into the night when Maria worked extra shifts. Eliza was the brightest thing in Maria’s life.

And maybe there would always be a tinge of bitterness, at unrequited love for the rest of Maria’s life. (There was no way that she could ever fall out of love with Eliza, even if she wanted to.) But that shadow would always, always be drowned out by the light that Eliza brought, and Maria was just happy, no, ecstatic, and so, so lucky, to have Eliza in her life.

Maria brought the last dregs of her energy to the surface, and yanked it out. She summoned the most light she ever had, screwing her eyes shut, and feeling something burst out as she slammed into the dark wall of Shadows.

She hit the ground on her hands and knees, sending a sharp jolt running through her body. She groaned.

Maria climbed to her feet with difficulty, stumbling and nearly diving headfirst into the pavement. Through swimming vision, she looked around.

The streetlamps were still out, but there wasn’t a trace of the Shadows left. Her vision focused on a figure on the ground, a few feet away. James lay sprawled across the street, skin a strange, burnt colour, in the darkness.

Maria limped over to him, tripping over her own feet. She felt like joining him on the ground. His chest rose and fell shallowly, but it was clear that he was out for the count.

“Maria!” The chilling silence of the empty streets was sliced by a familiar voice shrieking. Eliza ran towards her faster than she had ever seen anyone move before.

“James is—” but she was cut off.

Eliza grabbed Maria by the face and  _ crashed _ their lips together, flinging her arms around Maria’s neck. All Maria could do was freeze.

Eliza drew back as quickly as she had gone in, and then she was speaking at the speed of light. “That was so fucking amazing! You just— it was like there was a  _ supernova _ happening in the middle of New York City. It was like an atomic bomb went off, and you were at the heart, you were just so  _ bright, _ oh my God—”

This time, Maria was the one who interrupted. Not quite believing her own actions, she pressed her lips to Eliza’s, swallowing the words, hands settling lightly on Eliza’s hips.

James groaned, and the two reluctantly broke apart, glaring at him. Tree roots broke out of the cement, growing slowly but surely around James’ limbs.

“The police are definitely on their way at this point,” Maria said, resisting the urge to just bury her face into Eliza’s neck.

“Do we wanna stick around for that shitshow?” The question was answered before it was even asked, both women meeting eyes and making a decision. “It’s in their hands now.”

“We won,” Maria pointed out softly, breath quickening. “Eliza,  _ we won,” _

“We did,” Eliza’s eyes glistened, “Our job is over. I think we deserve to go home,”

It was so true that Maria just. Sobbed.

* * *

 

“New York City’s infamous supervillain, Prometheus, has been defeated and arrested and is now awaiting trial,” the news reporter said on the television. “After a long battle, in which hundreds of civilians were brainwashed and controlled, Prometheus has met his match and was found unconscious near the Chrysler Building. No one seems to have any memory of the fight."

Maria stared blankly at the screen. She wanted to sleep, but every time she closed her eyes all she could see was James and his wide, deranged grin.

“You okay?” Eliza asked, sitting down beside her with two mugs of tea. “Drink this. You’re really cold.”

Maria didn’t respond, just sipped her tea quietly. She felt just a little bit more like a living human.

“Prometheus’s ‘sidekick’, Freya, has still avoided capture,” The reporter continued. “It should be noted that she has not been sighted for almost three months. Many have speculated that perhaps Prometheus may have disposed of her.”

Eliza got up and turned off the television. She grabbed a blanket off the couch, and wrapped it around the both of them.

“You don’t have to continue to be Freya, y’know,” Eliza said softly, taking Maria’s hand. “You could change your suit, change your name, come out as someone new. If you even want to go back to being a superhero, that is.”

Maria swallowed. “No, I,” she broke off, taking a moment to gather herself. “No, I don’t. I don’t want Freya to go down in history as a villain. And, it just, it feels wrong for the people to trust me and call me a hero, without knowing the things I’ve done, y’know?”

Eliza stayed quiet, somehow sensing that Maria wasn’t finished.

“And, honestly, how can you expect people to sleep soundly if they think that a supervillain is still on the loose?” Maria stared at her lap. “I can’t do that to them.”

Eliza squeezed her hand. “Okay,” she said calmly. “That’s your choice.”

* * *

 

“There’s a bank robbery going on on 5th street!” Eliza exclaimed, bursting into the kitchen.

Maria spun around from where she had making a salad. “What?!”

“Bank robbery. 5th street.” Eliza panted. “What do you think of that being the start of your redemption arc?”

Maria stared at her for a moment, before setting her brow. “Give me five minutes to get ready,”

She and Eliza dashed into their separate rooms. Maria was pretty sure that she had never gotten changed so quickly in her life. Soon, the two were darting out of their rooms, still shoving their masks on.

Eliza opened the kitchen window, and then hurriedly pulled Maria to her. “Jump with me, then hold on tight,”

Maria had somewhat gotten used to the sensation by now, but she still didn’t enjoy the feeling of falling, then suddenly being caught by the vine that Eliza was swinging from.

They arrived at the scene within two minutes. The police had yet to arrive, so all there was was some locked doors and civilians attempting to help.

There were sighs of relief as they saw Diana approaching, then confused murmurs upon seeing who was with her.

A shockwave was sent into the locked doors of the bank, and they were burst open. Roots grew over the robber’s feet and climbed his body.

Maria hit him with a beam of light, and he was out. The people inside the bank stared at her and Eliza, eyes wide and faces ghostly pale.

“The police are on their way,” Eliza announced, stepping forward into the building. The civilians just watched her silently, parents still shielding their children. “Has anyone been hurt?”

No one said anything, just a few shaken heads no, and both women slumped with relief.

Maria slowly approached the gunman’s unconscious body, careful not to go too close to the still-wary people in the bank. She took the man’s gun and incinerated it in a blast of light. Strong vines were growing over his body, tying him down in case he got up.

“Can everybody please quietly evacuate the building?” Eliza asked. There were a few silent nods, and she went over to talk to the bank teller. “What happened?”

“He came in and demanded 25k.” The banker said, surprisingly calm. “I said the codeword to alert the other workers as to what was happening, but the bastard had already locked the doors. No idea how he got the keys, must have been planning this for a while.”

“Diana?” Maria called quietly. Both of them looked at her. “The police are here.”

Eliza nodded. “That’s our cue to leave,” she looked back at the teller. “You can take it from here, can’t you?”

The employee nodded.

Eliza grabbed Maria’s hand, and the two were out the doors.

* * *

 

The news talked about Freya’s strange new reformation for a  _ week. _

* * *

 

The evenings were getting longer and warmer. They left the apartment windows open to let fresh air in, which also allowed the sound of passing traffic in, too. Maria didn’t mind too much.

She and Eliza lay sprawled out on their couch, the television playing the credits of the movie that they had been watching.

“Hey, Liza?” Maria asked drowsily, rubbing her eyes.

Eliza hummed in acknowledgement, curling further into Maria.

“You kissed me,” Maria didn’t let herself think about the words before they were out of her mouth.

That seemed to wake Eliza up a bit. She sat up, pushing strands of dark hair out of her eyes and facing Maria, yet not meeting her eyes. “I did,”

Maria bit her lip. “Why?”

Eliza glanced up at her, a sad little half-smile tugging at her lips. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Maria tilted her head to the side. Eliza sighed.

“I love you. Like, not as in ‘you’re my best friend and I love you!’ kind of way. I love you in a ‘I wanna hug and kiss you and live with you forever’ kinda way,” Eliza took a deep breath. “So, yeah. I love you. In the romantic sense of the word.”

Maria grabbed Eliza’s wrist, and, more gently, tilted it so that it was palm-up. She slid her own hand in. “I’ve been wanting you to say that for longer than I can say,”

Eliza laced their fingers together. Maria made the first move, leaning in slowly, giving Eliza time to move away, if she wanted to. She didn’t.

Kissing Eliza for the second time was different. There was less desperation, less adrenaline, less shock from  _ oh my God it’s finally over. _

Eliza tried to move closer, but the awkward angle just ended up with their noses bumping. Maria had to pull back giggling, and oh, she has tears in her eyes.

A hand brushed her cheek. Eliza grinned at her, freckled nose scrunching up and the corners of her eyes crinkling. If it weren’t for the lighting, Maria could’ve sworn that her eyes were teary, too.

“Hey, ‘Liza?” Maria leaned her head on Eliza’s shoulder. “I love you,”

She let the tears fall.

* * *

 

Eliza ran her hands through Maria’s hair, fiddling a little with the ends. “I like it,”

“It still feels weird when I’m brushing it,” Maria replied, shaking the newly-shortened curls. “I’m like, ‘where did the rest of my hair go?’”

“It’s always like that, though,” Eliza resumed her combing of Maria’s hair. “It’s curlier now.”

Maria let her eyes slip closed. The evening sunlight streamed through her window, and the buzzing of the city below lulled her into a half-asleep state. Something struck her. “Shit!”

“What?!” Eliza yelped, startled by Maria bolting up suddenly.

“Don’t you think that our friends will notice if Freya comes out with shorter hair at the exact same time that I do, too?” Maria ran her hands through said hair agitatedly.

Eliza stopped her almost automatically. “It’s fine! We can just tie your hair up when you go out as Freya,”

Maria relaxed, feeling stupid. “I really should have considered that before I got my hair cut, though,”

Eliza tugged Maria to lie back down beside her. “You got it cut in at a sketchy-looking place, at one in the morning, after a night out at the bar,” Eliza ran her hands through her curls again. “I don’t think you put a lot of consideration into this at  _ all.” _

Maria scrunched her nose up. “I don’t know, I just thought that like, I had already pretty much completely turned my life around, isn’t cutting your hair one of the things you do to, y’know, symbolize new beginnings, or whatever?”

“That, or you just watched  _ Mulan _ one too many times,” Maria let head roll onto Eliza’s shoulder, grinning.

“That too.”

* * *

 

Lafayette smoothed down his casual button-up anxiously. Maria patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, they’re gonna love you!”

Eliza arrived back with drinks, and Lafayette eagerly took one and downed. Eliza raised an eyebrow. “Careful, don’t hurt yourself,”

“I am… a little bit nervous.” Lafayette admitted, tracing his finger around the rim of his glass.

Eliza smiled, and set the drinks down. “Trust me, you’re going to fit right in with our little group of idiots,”

“Hey guys!” A familiar voice cried from the doors. Peggy stood there, behind her John, Alex, Hercules, Aaron Burr, and Theodosia.

Lafayette swallowed, but Maria just shot him a grin. “Hey!” she called back. “Come meet a buddy of mine!”

As predicted, Lafayette slotted into their friend group startlingly fast. Alex and him spoke in rapid-fire French, while John and Hercules watched, confused but enthusiastic.

Eliza sidled up to Maria after a while, eyes still on Laf and the others. “That sure didn’t take long,”

Maria sipped her drink. “I mean, we  _ did _ say that he would fit in,”

“And  _ I _ was right,” Eliza gave her a sly smile. Maria smacked her arm gently.

“We were both right!” But their attention was diverted from each other when Alex exclaimed something loudly in French, before returning to speaking at the speed of light. Eliza sighed.

“I should probably go over there and make sure he doesn’t start another bar fight,” she said, setting her drink down.

Maria took her hand. “Who would he even start a fight with?”

“I wouldn’t put it past him to start one with himself,” Eliza grinned slightly. Maria squeezed her hand, before letting go.

“Go over there and make sure the idiot doesn’t get us kicked out of another bar, please. There’ll be no bars left in the city at this rate,”

Eliza saluted, before slipping over to the four men.

* * *

 

As the night progressed, and everyone got more and more tipsy, and thus had their guards down, Maria noticed something going on between Alex and John.

Well,  _ everyone _ knew that there was something going on between Alex and John. The two idiots just refused to get together, for some reason. But that night, weird moment kept passing between them. John would reach for Alex, before pausing abruptly and letting his hand fall. Alex would sit way too close to John, then startle and shimmy away. The small smiles, the way that their gazes seemed to always come back to each other, these things were new, and they were actions that Maria recognized.

Maria slipped into the seat next to John, nudging him slightly. “So. You and Alex, huh?”

John raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,”

“Reeeaaaaally,” Maria drawled. “So you two are just eyefucking casually?” Okay, maybe she has had a few too many drinks.

John’s freckled cheeks darkened just slightly, but he held his ground. “I don’t look at Alex any differently than you and Eliza look at each other,”  _ Not helping your case here, dude. _

Maria rolled her eyes. “The looks. The touches. The jumping away from each other. Classic signs of a secret relationship, bud,”

“And how would you know that?” John leaned his elbows onto the table.

Maria let her eyes trail away from him, over to the bar, where Eliza was chatting with Theodosia. A look of understanding crossed John’s face.

“When the hell did that happen?”

Maria shrugged. “It’s nothing official yet,” she said softly. “We… haven’t talked about it much.”

“Same,” John extended his hand for a high-five. Maria slapped it sarcastically.

Maria raised her drink, sloshing it around dangerously. “To hidden relationships!”

John grinned, clinking his glass against hers. “To hidden relationships. But I think it might be time for you to go home,”

* * *

 

Sometimes, Maria still watched the sunrise.

When she couldn’t sleep, when she would wake up from nightmares coursing with paralyzing fear, she would lie awake until the beginnings of dawn began poking their fingers through her blinds. Then, she’d get up, make herself some tea, and just stare out the window. Orange, pink, blue.

Those mornings were becoming fewer and further between.

Instead, she would text the group chat for a distraction. It would be stranger if there  _ wasn’t _ someone awake at that time. Instead, she would try the deep breathing exercises her therapist taught her. Instead, if Eliza was awake, she would go talk to her.

She had to remind herself that James wasn’t a central part of her life anymore. Maybe, at some point in the future, everything he did would just be a bad memory. Maybe at some point, she would realize that it’s in the past, it’s in the past, life goes on,  _ her _ life would go on.

And maybe that point wouldn’t be reached for a long time, but…

With her friends at her back, and Eliza at her side, things were going to be alright.

The sun rose over New York City. Maria looked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i cried as i wrote the ending to the fight scene. specifically, when eliza said "i think we deserve to go home."
> 
> "i don't want freya to go down in history as a villain." THAT!! is the line that i have been planning for maria to say SINCE THE BEGINNING
> 
> also i actually planned to have maria cut her hair before i found out that jasmine had also cut her hair
> 
> my tumble is @brightwritesstuff
> 
> [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sIMd8eoouyWry6WGQMpe0)
> 
> (holy shit this is the first multichap that i have ever actually completed. thats kinda sad)

**Author's Note:**

> WHAT is up guys, after an absence of about what? three months? i'm back again with another fic. i've been working on this one for an embarrassingly long time, but it's safe to say that i have this entire thing pre-written out so no long gaps between chapters (unlike all my other stories lmao)
> 
> no spoiler but the next chapter has one of my favorite scenes out of everything i've ever written so i'm looking forward to that!!
> 
> this fic was meant to be 50% romance and 50% action but i have no sense of balance so it ended up as an action movie with a romance subplot ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> anyway blease hmu on the tumble i am @brightwritesstuff
> 
> [spotify playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sIMd8eoouyWry6WGQMpe0)


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